THE OPEN DOOR POLICY. SPEECH BY SIR ALBERT SPICER.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LV, Issue 14011, 16 September 1909, Page 2

THE OPEN DOOR POLICY. SPEECH BY SIR ALBERT SPICER.

(Received Sept. 16, 10.85 +\m>); a . _ B*DNEY,.Se|»fc ! l6. Sir Albert Spicer, M.P., President of the London Chamber of Commerce and' President of the Congress. ■ ant nounced that he would join the jUbamber in a vote in favour of the prefer* entiai resolution, but as an individual he would vote against it. Britain had not the slightest desire for interfering with the trading condition* of the great self -governing dominions. Each part oi the Empire must be left to work out its own salvation in matters of trade. Britain was extremely grateful for the preference the ootomWliad given her, but if the colonies now asked 1 for some preference in return the Old I Country could not say, "Where can we give it?" It had been admitted' it could not be given on raw material, and, whether they liked it or not, it caiae to-* preference on food which the different parts of tkc Empire were producing in large quantities. Any country whioh has a surplus food production could, the question of protection an a fery different way to the country which had to import, food <up~ plies. , as Britain .had to de. The Bri* tifth Empire* was JfOT RING-FENCfiDv * ' "*' * like *h« United States, Gerauinafc or Australia, but scattered in different parts of the world. He felt satisfied that what would be food for one part of the world would be poijon for another, and that a binding system would lead to difficulties and probably to ultimate disaster. What had the Mother Country to offer in the way of preference P He would mention some preferences that had been already given. The, Old Country had given the dominions preference in some way on the question of defence, as was shown by the difference in the cost per head to Britain . and h_erjl«p#ndeßcies. Preferentj&tokd 1 been given, \oo, in connection iriih colonial stocks and bonds. It had been •aid that opinions were changing, hat if the next general election produced a result whjch would lead to a system whereby preference would be given to colonial wheat, and there followed higher prices, the greatest blow would be dean to the unity of the Empire. He wished them to look at it in a broad lights—in the light of our international relations. The Empire had been allowed to grow with comparatively little jealousy on the part of other great European nations, because Britain h*d treated them all exactly on the same line*. There had been an open door wherever she had gone.' In Crown polonies, protectorates, and in India all foreign countries were allowed to asnd their goods in on exactly the same terms as vnn British goods, fie believed that had made for THE WORLD'S PEACE. \ It had been said that England has. got behind, but if so the colonies wouKTbe doing themselves the greatest Vjidisserviee by buying something from J£ngland that was not best suited for their best work. He believed that during the last fifteen or twenty y#ars Britain had been adapting itself in the 1 manufacture of articles for needs- in new countries and he believed that The English delegates in Australia— in the observations they would nuke and the results they attained — would do more and more. Any attempt to bind the different parts together in that way muzht lead to disunity.