DISAPPOINTED DOMINIONS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 22 August 1924, Page 9

DISAPPOINTED DOMINIONS.

VIEWS OF TWO NEW ZEAJ j A.N DitltS. . LONDON, .July 2 Mi Cam or Jackson wrote to the Maily Mail to express his < i j .pci nameiiL, and that oi his country, at the treatment meted out to the Empire preference proposals. This letter yas iui lowed by one from Mr J. E. Stevens, "ho wanted to express his entire clisl agreement with the remarks . f \f r •Jackson. The first letter ran; "Though the Piererences in themselves were smaJ' the principle looms large in the eves of the Dominions. If i judge .rightly, they will not let the matter rest-where it stands at present. Were it not for the preference they grant British goods England's trade would not be even what it is to-day, yet by crass and persistent stupidity she is seeking to reduce further her trade, and, what is of more moment, to estrange her own kith aiul kin. Has she foigotteu that liom a similar small and selfish atlitude developed the crisis that led ultimately to the loss of her American colonies f ”

-Mr Stevens's view is that “the attachment of New Zealand to the Motherland is based on something less sordid than self-interest. One can be a patriot without being a .Protectionist. As a Now Zealander. I love England as tlie home of my forefathers, and j am proud of niv British ancestry because Britain lias always led the world in tin; l open roar! c-f freedom and against restriction of any kind. As a New Zealander .1 had little can.se for pride when my country imposed, in the name ol patriotism, her preferential tariff. M hen this was. first mooted I, with others, thought it implied a lowering of the existing duties on British goods, hut these were left as they were, and additional duties levied on foreign goods. We New Zealanders are a democratic people, and as such are content to allow the people of the Mother Country to look after their own .affairs Mr Gainor Jackson’s dismal forebodings with regard to the estrangement of our own kith and kin are not at all likely to he realised.”