Preferential Trade.

Thames Star, Volume XXXXI, Issue 10500, 16 December 1903, Page 4

Preferential Trade.

(Per United Press Association) LONDON, December 14. Lord. Rosabery, addressing! two lU'eetJinjgig fin Ed'iniblurgih,, auuiinibering j 8000, including, many workmen, said : Mir .Balfour's asrmy reform, speech was fiuill of breezy trivialities 1, suggesting a Christinas: ext.ra.vagan£Y. Mr Balfour. "bad sent Mr Chamberlain, to beat the wood® for 'gameMeanwhile the Cabinet sipped pro tection and water until it wouldi te able to dispense with water. It was evident that the Ministers who resigned believed that the Gorennment's real policy was 1 not retaliation but protection: and preferent'*! tiairiffs. (Mir Balfour's' tactics were nob straightforward- Lord Rosebery warned .agriculturiste! that .the Government was leading! .them,-into tin quagmires of disappointment. A 2s diuity on wheat was inadequate to benefit the British ■ "farmer ; it ciould only stimulate the illimitable area) | of competition in Canada and elsewhere. The time wionxld ainri've when the United States would ■ be unable to export wheat, aondi then it would be Canad'a'si and Australia's^ opportunity to develop their virgin soils anidl become great as. 3he supplying sources: of the Eanpire. The bounty on Canadian wheat would increase the depopulation, of rural England by attracting! agricultural labourers to Caoaadla- In the event of war it would be safest for Britain to have a world -wide wheat supply. The ringed preferential trade from tha coioniesi were a. delusion, not founded on ome substratem of fact. The colonial evidence shows that it was nob true( that the Emjpire- can only be kept together' by preferential tariff®-. - Never; (before was it so strong, umitledi, and prosperous. W!hy arrest andl disturb the Tjenefictemt development 1 We were not a great military Empire likei Rome 'jr RuiSisiai, but ai great- defensive league of oommiunifcies under 1 the great headship of the Crown.. Eachi unit, including the heart of the Empire, miust develop it® own. conditions in its own way- He appealed to the nation not to stake the future of the ' stately <aom.pa.ny of 'Ctomrn'oniwealths jon the hazard of tihe dice. Mr j Chamiberlain's policy was experimen- | tal, ■emipirioair, untried 1, anidi un- ' aolioitiwl* He addedi: "I refuse to strike, possibly ai fatal' blow, at the majestic structure of Britishi commerce or 'Empire" j The meeHngsr resolvted- in falvto'ur of ! freotrad(e( agaiimst. pirefeitenictei and ' retaliation.