THE BREACH WITH CANADA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20967, 2 September 1931, Page 10

THE BREACH WITH CANADA.

Three months after the Government peremptorily closed the negotiations with Canada by imposing foreign rates of duty against her products, the question has been for the first time raised in the House of Representatives, Mr. Downie Stewart having asked whether there had been any developments. The Prime Minister's reply indicated that nothing has occurred yet to mitigate the situation and showed very plainly that he is still more concerned to disclaim responsibility for creating the deadlock than to take any active 'steps toward solving it. Mr. Forbes apparently considers that the first move should be made by Canada because the balance of trade is in her favour, but the facts of the present situation make that argument utterly futile. During the first six months of 1930, imports from Canada were valued at £1,923,000;' in the correspondinc period of this year, the total was 1 £727,000, so that Canada's trade has been reduced by £1,196,000 or 62 per cent. New Zealand exports have declined from £2,212,000 to £210,000, or ' over 90 per cent,. The Prime Minis- | ter docs not show any appreciation i whatever of that grave injury to ,

New Zealand, the direct product o the tactless manner in which the so called negotiations with Canadi have been conducted. When Mr Forbes says that all the cablegram! on the subject have been publishec he probably means that no cable grams have passed since August 12 the date of the message in which he insisted that he had "no option bul to await a notification from the Canadian Government as to wher a definite date for the contemplatec discussions can bo fixed." If that if his meaning, then the only possible conclusion is that he has not communicated to Canada the proposal that a truco should be arranged tc enable trade between the two Dominions to continue until a permanent agreement can be arranged. All the representations to the Government have been fruitless : Mr. Forbes still regards the loss of a valuable market and the breaking of an Imperial connection as less important than the affront which his own dignity received in Ottawa, and is inflexibly obstinate in his demand that Canada must make the first step toward reconciliation. It is surprising that Parliament had tacitly approved this extraordinary attitude and neglected so long to protest against a drastic change in tariff policy without its sanction. Now that the subject has been raised, it may be hoped that members will insist upon a definite effort, on rational lines, to terminate a situation as discreditable as it is injurious.