PREFERENTIAL TRADE

Otago Witness, Issue 2603, 3 February 1904, Page 15

PREFERENTIAL TRADE

LONDON, January 26. The Daily Telegraph says the Duke of Devonshire and the Earl of Rosebery are forming a Central party, the Duke of Devonshire being prepared to satisfy the Nonconformist conscience on tho education question if the Earl of Rosebery will formally abandon Home Rule.

January 27,

One hundred and eight members of the manufacturers' section of the London Chamber of Commerce have answered affirmatively the question, " Do j'ou favour preferential trade with the Empire and foreign countries en a reciprocal basis ?"

Forty members answered negatively. The Right Hon. A. Lyttelton, Secretary for the Colonies, speaking at Leamington, said that if England's industries continued to be conducted under their present humane conditions we must take into account the lower standards of the worker's comfort abroad. When considering fiscal matters we ought to ask ourselves : Does unlimited, uncontrolled freedom to import make for the creative efficiency, the physical well-being, and moral expansion of English workers ? We must recover the power of effective negotiation. Sooner or later colonial preference would bo established. He believed that both the Ministerial and Labour parties in Australia were favourable to preference.

January 29.

Mr C4oschen, speaEing fit Halifax, said that while Mr Chamberlain promised increased employment he failed to show where hundreds and thousands of workmen could be found to ena-ble us to do without foreign imports. It would t>e an immense relief if a Royal Commission examined the figures of all parties and pronounced an authoritative judgment. Mr Chamberlain's v/hole arguments rested on a series cf dangerour fallacies. No doubt trade depression existed, but that was no reason to upset the trade system. Experience of a few months' Protection abroad neither gave regular employment nor prevented a commercial crisis in Germany, but undoubtedly was accompanied by long hours, less pay, and a diminution of food. He protested against Mr Chamberlain's denial of imperial instincts to his opponents.

A Cob'den Club pamphlet has been issued. It is entitled "Fact v. Fiction," and, besides traversing Mr Chamberlain's contentions, declares that his statements relative to destroyed and languishing industries are ludicrous exaggerations.

January 30.

The Times, commenting on the Right Hon. A. Lyttelton's cablegram to Mr Seddon, considers that the Chinese ordinance bears very evident signs of tHe influence exerted by the consideration of the objections so forcibly urged by Mr Seddon.

The Pall Mall Gazette says that Mr Lytteltou's reply to Mr Seddon was worthy of Mr Chambei-lain in his best manner. The Colonial Secretary takes the common-sense view, and it is hoped that Mr Seddon and his colleagues, having protested, will now be satisfied.