The Hastings Standard Published Daily WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 4, 1897. THE COMMERCIAL TREATIES.

Hastings Standard, Issue 390, 4 August 1897, Page 2

The Hastings Standard Published Daily

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 4, 1897. THE COMMERCIAL TREATIES.

For the cause that lacks assistance. For the wrongs that need resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do.

The fact that the British Government has decided to denounce the German and Belgian treaties is proof positive of the earnest desire of the Motherland to draw her offspring towards her. The two treaties named barred the colonies from giving to Great Britain the advantages of preferential trade, for whatever terms were conceded to the United Kingdom were to be granted also to the foreign countries. England has decided to secede from this, and in doing so she risks a good deal to placate the colonies. Of course Germany will retaliate and possibly Belgium also, but that need not be just now, for the denunciation of the treaties must be followed by preferential trade treaties with the outlying portions of the Empire, which are mostly self-governing colonies. That appears to be the logical conclusion. If Great Britain and the colonies engage in preferential trading the loss to foreign nations such as Germany, France, America and Eussia will be enormous. The colonies can supply the Old Country with all the food products she requires, and if these were taken under a preferential tariff it would spell ruin to the foreigners. This preferential trading will, we think, eventually result, but it will be of slow growth, and it is as well that it should be so. The Germans are said to have been keenly watching the progress of the conference between the Colonial Office and the Colonial Premiers, and they professed to see no changes worth recording. The announcement of Downing Street that the commercial treaties are to be denounced will give the Germans a rude shock. It will let them see that the ties that bind the Empire are of the strongest possible fibre, and in a measure the successful consolidation of the British Empire is due directly to German interference. The famous telegram which the Kaiser sent to Kruger disillusioned the British, and the " splendid isolation " of England, which about that period was most manifest, has had its beneficent results. The action of Germany accelerated the movement for the federation of the Empire, and the denunciation of the commercial treaties, which will involve considerable sacrifice on the part of Great Britain, is eloquent testimony of the rich results that have followed the serious and sustained efforts made to solidify the Empire. We have no doubt the Premiers of each colony will take credit for this latest move on the part of the British Government ; but those who have taken note of the successive events will readily see that the whole credit of forcing such action on the put of Great. Britain is due to

Canada. The Canadian tariff, of which we have heard so much, was so framed as to admit of preferential treatment being accorded to the Mother Country. Sir Wilfred Laurier followed this up with a remarkable and forceful speech at Liverpool, and the Canadian Government in addition sent a special Commissioner, in the person of the Minister of Marine, to interview the British authorities. The Colonial Premiers with one voice pleaded for the denunciation of the treaties, but they were in it only after the Canadians had paved the way. However, the happiest results may be expected to follow, and the event is a memorable one iu a year which will be rich in events of the happiest description.