July 19.
Lord Elibank, as an earnest disciple of Lord Beaverbroo! has bearded the Government the House of Lords on the subject dear to his heart. The Government however were not to be cajoled into introducing into the discussions of the Dominion representatives the topic which has dislocated the organization of the Conservative party, stampeded the headline experts in the Rothermere and Beaverbrook Press and aroused the ribald derision of the wags of Fleet Street, Conservatives, as well as Liberals, may be thankful. The Empire Free Trade Campaign has this virtue: it has drawn to the Empire the attention of a public which, thanks to the previous predilections of the two Press Lords, has been trained to believe that nothing matters so much as the "Amazing romance of a Brixton Flapper", the "Net sales certificate of some galvanized provincial journal" or the: "views on Matrimony of the Jatest tennis star". But, although his readers may be forgiven if they cherish the notion, Lord Beaverbrook did not discover the British Empire. The defect in his policy is that it has not the slightest chance of being accepted by the self-governing Dominions and, if it had, it would not solve the prod-Jams which really confront Great) Britain. Those "problems are economic. They must be solved by attention to economic facts and political realities. Early in the life of the Empire Fr rade Party that organization was described by a leading Ca servative politician as "not a party but a nuisance". It is a nuisance to-day, It is persuading otherwise harmless M.P.s that they are budding geniuses and embryonic Ministers. diverting energies which should be applied to sane appreciation of the economic needs of the British Empire.
The real subject for discussion by the Imperial Conference is the need for developing the economic unity of the Empire. This has been recognized by no less a body than the General Council of Trade Union Congress, whose report on the subject, published last month, is an exceedingly valuable contribution to Imperial thought, That report points out that Great Britain cannot maintain her old policy of isolation and_ that, equally, the old Manchester school doctrines of Laissez faire Ju economic matters are inapplicable to the highly-organized entities of the world Lo-day. Great Britain has a choice beween three economic alliances: the United States of America, with "the United States of Europe,.as yet unborn, or with her own Dominions. The conclusion whick the report reaches is in favour of the last-named: for economic and practical reasons to which sentiment supplies additional strength. It presses therefore for "as full a development as possible of the economic relations between the' constituent parts of the British Commonwealth. At! the same time, it is vitally necessary to avoid' any suggestion of antagonism either to European aims or American policy."
On that text the Imperial Conference can safely meditate. It can do more: it can propound measures and action. Control, safeguarding and marketing are all devices of economic policy which can be brought into play without raising the bogy of fiscal polemics, except perhaps for the extremists of both sides.
In the furtherance of Empire economic unity there are the bonds of a common language, common traditions and a common allegiance. The difference the official Conservative policy, as defined by Mr. Baldwin, the trade policy of the present Government and the rep of the Trade Union experts is in reality small. They all recognize that the way to economic unity must be secured by several devices among which a tariff—, call it control or safeguarding—may be one. They cannot march with Lord Elibank and his masters, who: would concentrate on the tariff to the exclusion of all else and thus enthrone all the exploded fallacies of doc trinaire protection to the certain destruction of any political party which might be foolish enough to follow them.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.