The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-12-11 00:00:00

FOREIGN TARIFFS ON BRITISH

INDM

Earl Granville, Foreign Secretary, hay ng beuu
communicated with by Mr. Abraham, miners' repre-
sentative in the Rhondda Valley, touching the aboli-
tion of foreign tariffs upon British industrial produc-
tions, has directed Sir Charles Mike, Under Secretary,
to reply that Her Majesty's Government take advant-
age of all opportunities that occur tu urge the removal
of duties in foreign tariffs which press unduly on free
trade, and, further, that when they can properly do so
Her Majesty's Government do not fail to point out to
foreign Governments the advantages to the general
interests of their countries of the adoption of a free-
trade policy.

Replying to a communication from Mr. Abraham
on the same subject, the Marquis of Hartington
writes that, while not prepared to make suggestions
as to the mode of accomplishing this desirable object,
he is favourable in all circumstances to strict adherence
on our part to free-trade principles.

The Earl of Derby has replied as follows to a similar
communication :—" I am afraid I cannot.hold out to
you or to your friends a hope of effective action being
taken for the abolition of foreign import duties on
British industrial productions. Diplomacy can do
little in a matter of this kind. We may advise
foreign Governments to alter their tariffs for their
sakes, and we may ask them to do so for ours, but to
both—the advice and the appeal—the same answer
will be given, 'that nations regulate their financial
system in accordance with their own ideas and for
their own convenience.' We ourselves, if we had not
been convinced that the adoption of a free-trade
system would benefit England, would certainly not
have been led to adopt it by advice or remonstrances
from foreign States. Why should we expect them to
be more compliant? We may even do mischief to the
cause in which we are interested by undue pressure.
The futility and folly of attempting a system of
retaliation have been so often exposed that I need not
repeat arguments with which you are no doubt already
familiar. The only hope of inducing foreigners to
adopt the economical ideas prevalent in this country
lies in showing that their failure to make progress
abroad has not diminished our faith in them or our
conviction in their ultimate success. I fear this is
cold comfort, but I have no other to give. Remember
that the world moves slowly, and that it is not forty
years since Freetraders were in a minority in the
English Parliament."

Mr. Burt, M.P., writes :—" You and the .miners of
South Wales are quite right in doing all that is pos-
sible to induce foreign Governments to abolish their
tariffs, but it is difficult to see what England can do
in this direction beyond persuasion and setting a good
example. A retaliatory policy would be stupid and
suicidal."

Mr. Maclver, M.A., has written as follows :—" The
recently published letters from Mr. Bright and Sir
Stafford Northcote to you in regard to protective
tariffs, deal with a subject the importance of which
can hardly be exaggerated. It will be interesting to
know what grounds there are for believing that 'some-
thing may yet be done by negotiation. Mr. Bright,
as a member of the Government, could tell you at
once whether there is • any reasonable expectation of
the Foreign Office being able to obtain free admis-
sion into the United States for your manufactures, and
also whether under the new Commercial Treaty which
is being negotiated it is intended that France shall
admit your manufactures duty free and abandon the
bounty system under which our loaf •sugar-making
industries are being destroyed. There are some among
us who have lost faith in negotiations and who would
be glad to be reassured. I, for one, believe that there
can be no such reassurance and that negotiations alone
will never procure fair play for your industries. It
seems to me that the time has arrived when theories
should be cast aside, and that a consideration of the
condition of the industries of our country has now
become of more importance than continued endeavours
for the advancement of what are called free-trade
principles. It ought not to be forgotten that Adam
Smith tells us plainly in his 'Wealth of Nations'
(book 4, chap. 2) that wherever foreign nations restrain
our industries by placing duties upon our manufac-
tures we ought to retaliate, and that John Stuart
Mill in his 'Principles of Political Economy' says
in almost equally plain terms that the only mode in
which we can save ourselves from being losers by the
revenue duties which other countries impose on our
commodities is to place duties upon theirs."

At a meeting representative of 15,000 colliers held
at Pentre Rhonda on Monday, a resolution was passed
expressing gratification at the important enunciation
of opinion elicited by means of the correspondence
which had taken place between Mr. W. Abraham,
miners' representative, and the leading statesmen as
to foreign tariffs, and expressing a• hope that all the
trade in Wales and Monmouthshire would unite in
sending a representative to the forthcoming prelimi-
nary congress to be held for dealing with the subject.
A general congress, representative of the whole
kingdom, will be afterwards held.

At a meeting of the Council of the National Anti-
Bounty League, held on Thursday, under the presi-
dency of Mr. J. Duncan, chairman of the Bristol
Sugar Refiners' Association the following resolution
was adopted :—" That in the opinion of this meeting.
the foreign bounty system violates the most-favoured
nation clauses in our commercial treaties by destroy-
ing fiscal equality between foreign States to the pre-
judice of those who give no bounties." A conference
of delegates of all the metropolitan trades, at which
Mr. S. Morley, M.P., and other members of the
House of Commons will be present, is about to be
held om the subject.