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has considered the possibility of any preference from the Colony which he represents,
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the reply given by Sir Robert Bond was as follows :-
"Our tariff, as I stated a few days ago, has been framed solely for revenue purposes, and I do not think it would be possible for us to make any preference. Further, I do not think it would be any advantage to the Mother Country for us to revise our tariff in any way, inasmuch as the only goods that we import from foreign countries, principally the United States of America, are goods which this country could not supply to us."
While it is quite correct that the Premier of this Colony did not object to the principle of preferential trade, it is correct that he made it very clear indeed to the Conference that the principle could not be carried out in practice in this Colony.
25644.
No. 3.
R. BOND,
Colonial Secretary.
2564
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Mr. White bead, 139 Commercial,
July 15,
1904.
FOREIGN OFFICE to COLONIAL OFFICE.
(Received July 21, 1904.)
[Answered by No. 6.]
The Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs presents his compliments to the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, and is directed by the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to transmit to him, to be laid before the Secretary of State for the Colonies, the accompanying paper, noted in the margin, respecting German commercial relations with Canada and Australia.
Sent to Board of Trade.
Foreign Office,
July 20, 1901.
Enclosure in No. 3.
(No. 139. Commercial. Confidential.) MY LORD,
Berlin, July 15, 1904. An article having appeared in the "Cologne Gazette" of the 10th instant to the effect that, as the various commercial treaty negotiations in which Germany is at present engaged were making good progress, the Agrarian party were urging that the new German Tariff should be brought into force on the 1st of April next, I took an opportunity, on the 12th instant, of asking Baron von Richthofen whether there was any possibility of this taking place.
His Excellency replied that so early an application of the new Tariff was quite out of the question, as the negotiation of the remaining commercial treaties, viz., with Russia, Austria-Hungary, Roumania, and Switzerland, would necessarily take some time, and it would not be possible to submit them to the Reichstag before December, while the period of transition required by German commerce to re-arrange its business according to the new conditions would certainly be more than three months (one year is claimed by the "Commercial Treaties Association ").
His Excellency then mentioned the position of the British Empire in regard to the new German Tariff, saying, that as far as the renewal of the modus vivendi with the United Kingdom is concerned, there would doubtless be no difficulty, but that the question of Canada and Australia, especially the former, was a serious one, and formed the only acute issue in the relations between the two countries. He told me, further, that he had now decided to make a definite proposal to your Lordship through Count Metternich, but gave me no indication as to what this proposal was to be, except that I gathered it would turn upon the question whether Germany was to negotiate with His Majesty's Government for the whole British Empire, or would be allowed to make separate arrangements with the self-governing Colonies.
I have, &c.,
J. B. WHITEHEAD.
The Marquess of Lansdowne, K.G., &c.
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