PROTECTION OR PREFERENCE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16479, 19 February 1914, Page 6

PROTECTION OR PREFERENCE.

Mr Bonar Law may be at heart an earnest tariff reformer, but his attitude towards the "chief constructive plank of the Unionist platform" is that of the mere party'politician. The Unionist members belonging to the Chamberlain group presented an amendment to the Address-in-Reply in the House of Commons on Tuesday, "in favour of Imperial preference without imposing fresh duties on foodstuffs '' and of a 10 per cent duty on imported manufactured goods. Mr Bonar Law had to say something on the subject and apparently he determined to make another attempt at pleasing everybody. " He was not advocating protection," runs the cabled summary of his remarks, " and never had done so, but merely sought preference for their own people. The moment the Conservative Party attained power it would give the dominions precisely what they asked for," These vague promises naturally will please nobody. The British manufacturer would like protection, but he is most unwilling to pay taxes on raw materials. The British farmer would like to see duties charged on foodstuffs, hut lie is keenly averse to paying more for manufactured goods. The consumer, and the worker in particular, has a wholesome dread of food taxes, which would add to the burden of the cost of living. The dominions overseas, which have not asked for any concession at all, send the Mother Country scarcely anything but foodstuffs and raw materials, and they understand that a system of

preference excluding these articles would be an empty pretence. A ten per cent duty on foreign manufactured goods*imported into Britain would be protection pure and simple and would hardly affect inter-Imperial trade at all. The Unionist leader knows these facts well enough, but he believes, perhaps rightly, that to face them boldly would bo to drive a wedge through his party. His desire, indicated in his speeches as well as his actions, is to push tariff reform into the background until after the next general election. What form this portion of the Unionist policy will take finally it would be rash to predict; but apparently it will bo shaped rather by a careful regard for expediency than by any heroic devotion to principle.