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mining and lumbering machinery. It must be remembered that it is the export of merchandise that enables the producers of one country to draw upon the supplies of other countries, and it is precisely where the largest export of merchandise finds a market that the principal supplies are best obtained.
The imports above enumerated can only be obtained from the United States. The only question that might present itself to His Majesty's Ministers is in relation to machinery, and it is presumed that any doubt on that point will be removed by the following quotation from remarks of the Prime Minister of Canada, at the Colonial Conference in 1902, viz.: "There " is another class of goods imported directly from the United States and "which I do not see any prospect of being similarly introduced from Great Britain-mining machinery. Canada is fast becoming a great mining country. The United States are more accustomed to the manufacture of "mining machinery which is more suited to our purpose than anything we can import from Great Britain in that way." (See page 44 of Proceedings of Colonial Conference.)
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It cannot but be apparent to His Majesty's Government that between this Colony and the United States of America there exists all the elements for a mutually advantageous trade, and it will not be a matter of surprise, therefore, that it is the desire of the Government and the people of this Colony to encourage and extend it. A hostile tariff, a preferential tariff in favour of the United Kingdom and other parts of the Empire, could only result in keeping closed the ports of the United States to the free admission of the exports of this Colony, while, on the other hand, it would in no way increase the trade between this Colony and other parts of the Empire. The reason for this was clearly set forth by the Prime Minister of this Colony before the Colonial Conference in 1902, when he said "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 (England) could not supply to us." (See page 128 of Proceedings of Colonial Conference, 1902.) It might be added, neither could the Dominion of Canada supply those goods.
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"fiscal relations of the different parts of the Empire inter se should not be hampered by any agreements with foreign countries requiring that such "countries should receive the same treatment as may be accorded to other parts of the Empire, that this principle had been unanimously adopted by the Colonial Conference of 1897." This Government has been unable to find any record of the proceedings of the Colonial Conference of 1897. It is certain, however, that the then Premier of the Colony had no authority what- ever to bind the Government or the Colony to such a principle, and that he did not subsequently even submit the principle for the approval of his colleagues in the Executive Council. It appears, moreover, upon
reference
to the report of proceedings of the Colonial Conference, 1902, that the resolution to which His Majesty's Government directs attention became a dead letter so far as all the Colonies are concerned, for, in his opening speech at that Conference, Mr. Chamberlain said, "the Premiers then (1897) unanimously undertook to consult with their colleagues, and to consider whether a preference might not be given in their Customs tariff for goods imported from the United Kingdom. But nothing whatever has come of "the resolution up to the present time. No step has been taken to give any "effect to it." (See page 7 of Minutes of Conference.)
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It would seem from the foregoing that the resolution passed by the Colonial Conference of 1897 was simply an embodiment of a desire to ascertain if it were practicable to frame a tariff in the respective Colonies that would guarantee a preference to goods imported from the United Kingdom, and that this was a matter to be determined by the respective Premiers after consultation with their colleagues. It is respectfully submitted that such a resolution could hardly furnish a justification for His Majesty's Government refusing to ratify the Convention, negotiated and signed by His Majesty's Ambassador at Washington in 1902. The action contemplated by that resolution was not a restrictive or coercive one on the part of His Majesty's Government to be performed, but, as Mr. Chamberlain stated at the Colonial Conference in 1902, a preference which the Colonies may be willing voluntarily to accord to the United Kingdom." (See page 8 of Minutes of Conference.)
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As the Prime Minister of this Colony further stated at the Colonial Conference in 1902, " the principle of our tariff taxation is, and always has been, entirely a free trade principle, without discrimination of countries (page 15 of Proceedings of Conference); it must, for the reasons hereinbe fore stated, remain such for many years to come, and, therefore, the only induce- ment that the Colony had to hold out to the United States to move its Government to grant free admission to our products was the guarantee "that no heavier duty shall be imposed in Newfoundland on articles coming "from the United States than is imposed on such articles coming from
' elsewhere," during the continuance of the Convention.
It is submitted that the principle involved in Article V. of the Convention is in no way opposed to that for which Mr. Chamberlain is so strenuously labouring to day, and which he enunciated before the Colonial Conference in 1902. In a pamphlet published by the General Secretary of the Imperial Tariff Committee in 1903, entitled "Mr. Chamberlain's Proposals. What they mean and what we shall gain by them," and which pamphlet received the impri- matur of Mr. Chamberlain, it is stated, "If we again set up a tariff, we shull,
in Mr. Chamberlain's phrase, have 'resumed the power of negotiation which we last used to advantage in the Cobden Treaty. This does not necessarily mean that we shall do away with free trade for foreign manu- "factures. We may still, if we choose, give them free trade; they will probably get it, as the French got it in 1860, for something less than free "trade. But they will not get it for nothing." (Page 62.)
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By the Convention to which His Majesty's Government has recently taken exception, this Colony is secured in getting something, namely, free admission for its products into the markets of the United States, in exchange for a guarantee that while that privilege continues American goods shall be admitted at the same rate of duty as goods from all other countries.
3. In paragraph 2 of the despatch under reference His Majesty's Govern- ment state "it was the declared policy of His Majesty's Government that the
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4. In paragraph 3 of the despatch under reference, it is said that "His Majesty's Government had no knowledge of the addition of the provision (now objected to) until the receipt of the text of the Convention as signed." Of course the statement of His Majesty's Government on that point is conclusive. While this Government is surprised that such an able and experienced Ambassador as the then British Ambassador at Washington should have omitted to apprise His Majesty's Government of the paragraph in question, the papers before them appear to furnish conclusive evidence that he had the draft Convention, as signed on the 8th of November 1902, before him, when, on the 13th of October, he informed the Prime Minister of this Colony that he had cabled the amendment to Lord Lansdowne. The following day, the 14th of October, he wrote the Prime Minister of this Colony that he had received a telegram from Lord Lansdowne that his telegrams, Nos. 35 and 36, had been referred to the Colonial Office, and "reply will be sent as soon as possible"; and on the 18th October forwarded Sir Robert Bond a copy of a cypher cable received from Lord Lansdowne authorising him to "sign the draft Convention as amended," and to "inform "Sir R. Bond that His Majesty's Government relying on the assurance conveyed in his letter of April 25th, 1901, that Great Britain and all British "Colonies and all countries entitled by treaty to most-favoured treatment in Newfoundland, will receive the same treatment, both as regards bait and import duties as United States, have much pleasure in authorising the completion of the Convention,"
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It further appears from the papers before this Government, which are very full and complete, that the late British Ambassador at Washington never apprised the Prime Minister of this Colony, with whom he corresponded most freely, that any objection to the Convention had been raised by His Majesty's Government. On the 8th of November 1902, the morning the Con- vention was signed, he wrote the Prime Minister of this Colony and forwarded him a copy of the Convention as signed. Subsequently, having learnt that
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