L
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
།། ༄།། །། །
Reference :-
C.O. 885
6
N.
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
1
TRADE WITH TUNIB.
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The Secretary of State.] Yes.
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Sir Wilfrid Laurier.] What is the point now?
The Secretary of State.] It is whether you desire us to endeavour to include you to maintain the rates you have at present or whether you would desire to be excluded from any new arrangement.
Sir Wilfrid Laurier.] I hold that nobody would be prepared to give an answer just now; for my part I should not be prepared to give a final answer just now, but probably it would be in the negative, that we should not be included in the Treaty.
Mr. Kingston.] Is there any specified limit of time for the action suggested?
The Secretary of State.] The negotiations are now going on, so that it is urgent.
Sir Wilfrid Laurier.] In the negotiations, would it not be desirable to have the provision to give twelve months for the Colonies to join?
Sir George Turner.] That is not the point, they want to exclude us; the French Government want to exclude us; but the English Government are trying to get us in, and they want to know whether we desire to be in or not. That is the position. The English Government desire to know whether we wish that an effort should be made to get us in, but if the British Govern- ment think it very advantageous and cannot get us in, we should be satisfied to stand out.
Mr. Kingston.] They might arrange to give us the option.
Sir George Turner.] They will not give us the option.
The Secretary of State.] It is not likely that Tunisian goods would swamp the Australian or the Canadian market.
Sir E, N. C. Braddon.] I do not think our goods would swamp Tunis.
The Secretary of State.] It is a very small trade at present.
Sir E. N. C. Braddon.] There is no cotton trade in our Colony.
The Secretary of State.] There is some trade.
Sir E. N. C. Braddon.] From Great Britain, it comes round the other
way.
The Secretary of State.] It goes through Malta.
Sir E. N. C. Braddon.] There will be no direct trade.
Sir George Turner.] I should think not; it would not pay.
Earl of Selborne.] With reference to the most-favoured-nation clause, you are creating a treaty to meet trade with Tunis.
The Secretary of State.] Would you consider that, and at our next meeting be prepared to say what you wish ?
Earl of Selborne.] It would be convenient if Mr. Anderson gives each Premier a note to say what the point was.
The Secretary.] I will do so.
The Secretary of State.] You will have a short minute prepared and sent round.
The Secretary.] Yes, I will do so.
LOAD LINES.
The Secretary of State.] Would you put this point also in a minute about the load-lines.
The Secretary.] Yes.
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The Secretary of State.] And send it to the Premiers of those Colonies which are concerned.
The Secretary.] Yes.
The Secretary of State.] I may say on the load line question in the Colonies, if anything, they are making it stricter than what it is here; it is not widening
it at all.
Mr. Kingston.] Yes.
Sir George Turner.] That is certainly our desire.
The Secretary.] I think we are satisfied with New Zealand; I think New Zealand is quite satisfactory; there is no question between us and you.
Mr. Kingston.] I should like to have an opportunity of looking at our part of the correspondence, which I have not brought with me. No doubt it can be available.
The Secretary.] Quite so.
The Secretary of State.] The answer of the Colonies is that they would fix
it more stringently rather than less stringently.
Sir George Turner.] That is our desire, unquestionably.
Sir John Bramston.] I think there is a feeling of uncertainty in the mind of the Board of Trade as to the effect of your legislation in comparison with the English load-line.
The Secretary of State.] You see it is an eeedingly complex and technical subject this fixing of load-lines. It might be that one of the Colonies accidentally fixed the load-line for a particular class of ship below what the Board of Trade did; then there would at once be an agitation and a claim under the law to refuse the facilities to those ships when they came into the British ports.
Sir George Turner.] If it were only accidental I am perfectly certain they would very soon alter it. It could be done by way of alteration; we could very soon alter it; our intention is to make it more stringent in the interests of the sailors.
The Secretary of State.] I think it would be better to have an uniform load-line; if we could, gentlemen, we should; I should think we could attain that if the Colonies interested had their own representatives upon the board that fixed the load-line.
Mr. Kingston.] The course we took was, to a great extent, at the instance of the insurance companies, not only Australian but Imperial; and their chief proposal was to apply the stringent North Atlantic load-line to vessels going round the Horn, and statistics were supplied which proved the necessity of something of that sort. The insurance companies speak most strongly in favour of it. Therefore, perhaps, if the objections were crystallized and sent to us at our next meeting, we would be able to deal with it. We think there is some misunderstanding with regard to the matter.
The Secretary of State.] I think it would be a very good thing if we could get one of the Board of Trade secretaries to meet these gentlemen for a quarter of an hour.
Sir George Turner.] If they let us have a minute beforehand of what their particular objections are it would give us an opportunity of looking into our position.
The Secretary of State.] Will you make a note of that, Mr. Anderson, please, and get from the Board of Trade a minute of their objections, pointing out what has been said by Sir George Turner and others, that as far as there is any difference whatever, it is in favour of stringency rather than the other
way.
Sir John Bramston.] There is also a question of load-line in Canada; they
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