THE IMPERIAL CONFERENCE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13894, 4 May 1907, Page 141

THE IMPERIAL CONFERENCE.

Sir,—Possibly my short lctler will find favour with few. All the same I should like to record my opinion of the muchreported doings in London. I look upon the whole thing as an expensive toy—something to amuse and flatter the too fastlygrowing child colonies. There is an insulting lack of official recognition and representation, and the unofficial banquets and receptions intended to make up for this are, if possible, more offensive. The conference cannot be said to be wholly devoid of result, for we can never forget that Sir W. Lyne has proved himself a man. All this talk about preference is the veriest waste of breath. It is the one point on which leaders in London appear willing to commit themselves because they know, and none better, the impossibility of the satisfactorily practical materialisation of this phantom preferential tariff bait dangled bofore tho eyes of the conference. Anyone who considers the constituent parts of the Empire must surely realise that, lo those conversant with [jreat lines of lioods sold in the colonies to-day. purporting lo be of British make, the jest becomes more grhastlv. The goods to which I allude are of British make, inasmuch as the.y are put together in British lands. Thero is one thing- certain, so long as the colonies remain part of tho Empire they can be nothing but colonies—fox which let us rejoice. To be a colony is, I take il, to be greatly freo from the inherent cla,«s snobbishness of Great. Britain: but it is also to be for all time a ma.rk for tho display of such hateful ill-breeding. All the honours showered on cur representatives do not lessen the truth of what, 1 say ono whit A very short unofficial visit to the United Kingdom will oonvince any doubter of the truth of this. Not all the kindness and consideration uniformly shown by one's Home friends oan hido the fact. Colonials aro, with a few necessary reservations, thank God. what they are. The fame may be said of Homo folk, caving we should be more devoutly thankful for the many exceptions. There is one. and one only, form of preference which can benefit the Homeland and the colonies alike and bo no sham—that is the often-advocated remission of a certain amount of duty, at present tariff, on goods carried in British bottoms. —I am, etc., Axti-llumbcg. Dunedin, April 30.