Apr, 2.
Now that the Mouse of Commons is shortly to diseuss_ the first Budget of the Labour Government an opportunity sents itself to draw to and press for the abolition of serious anomaly in the fiscal system of the United Kingdom. We refer to the preferential duty in favour of Ceylon and) Indian teas imported into the United Kingdom. During the war, for revenue purposes, the duty on ten was raised from five pence to one shilling 'a pound. Later at a conference of the Allies and the Domin. ions in Paris the so-called Paris resolutions were passed and the principal of Imperial preference was affirmed.—The Government found it was one thing to affirm the principle Imperial preference, but quite another thing to carry it out effectively. We do mot propose to discuss this thorny question but simply to point cout that rightly or wrongly the electorate has since decided) that Imperial preference is not a practical _possibi After the Paris resolu 1s, however, the Government were commi tod to it. Tt was manifestly impossible to introduce a highly contentious measure carrying out the spirit of the resolutions they decided to save their. & by carrying out in some small measure the letter of the resolutions. In looking) round for some corpus vile on} which to.' experiment, they unfortunately hit upon. tea as being an article on which preference could be establishe!l with the least contention and the least disorganization to the trade of the country. In point of fact they could hardly have chosen anything which required a preference less. Neve theless the duty on Britis! grown: tea was reduced from! one shilling to ten "pence per Pound and later, when the general duty on tea was reduced to eight pence, British-grown tea was admitted at six pence per pound, at which figure it now stands.
Tt is difficult to see what good has resulted from. this measure. A preference thas been established on an article so firmly rooted in the public taste as not to need it, in favour of a country whose Whole fiscal policy recent years has been. "increasingly directed towards imposing import duties to protect its industries from imported English manufactures, while imports into England from China, country into which the manu: factures of all nations enter on equal terms, wire penalized to the extent' of penny-three-farthings per pound. The strictest Protectionist now admits that a country's imports can only be paid for by its exports and it seems a pity to handicap China's purchasing powers in Pngland by legisla: tion against her produce.
Tiiore Ss another aspect to the case, which is very important. The—preference favour of British-grown tea has Yad a very serious effect on the re-export trade in London. Before the preference was im= posed, most of Europe's tea buying was done in London, because, broadly speaking, being a free market, it was the cheapest one. The imposition of the preference hag undoubtedly caused the other consuming countries to obtain more and more of their require ments direct and London rapidly losing a very valuable trade. Teas were shipped quantity from Chitia to London to meet the re-export demand, the merchant well knowing that, if he missed this rolatively small and fluctuating market, hhis cargo could be sold for home consumption in free competition with British-grown tea. Now such consignments are getting smaller aimd_smaller, and London and British merchants in China are losing all the profit on handling them.
Tu view of the present favourable circumstances for securing the abolition of this preference, which nobody really wants, would appear excellent policy. for the Chinese through their Minister in London to press for its abolition and our Bris ish Chamber of Commerce should also make its views known to the Homo Govern: ment. Wo understand that 0 fund is being raised in London by a leading broker there, ninety per cent. of whose business is in British-grown tea, for the purpose of propaganda in favour of abolition of the preference, and with combined action on the part of everybody interested it should be possible to create a favourable atmosphere in the House for its removal.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.