The Daily Alaska empire., 1932-09-03
THE OTTAWA FIASCO.

THE OTTAWA FIASCO.
 Correspondence in the New York Times frol ottawa says the Liberal Party of Canada, under tf rilant leadership of former Premier w. L. Mac enze King, will go down the line against the rat ication of the concords of the late Imperial Cor erence at Ottawa They say that if the effort prevent ratification fails, the results of tn will be made issue between the partie md taken to the people by the Liberals.
 Already war has been declared against the cor ,ords in England. The old Manchester Guardial which has fought the battles for free trade for mol han century has taken up the cudgels and opposing them with all it's masterful acumen ar powerful editorial ability.
 Commenting upon the work at Ottawa just b ore the final agreements, the Guardian said:
 Ottawa must be sad disillusonment to those who took the opening speeches serious ly. How much ink and speech was poured out on the theme that Ottawa was the hope of the world, the turning point in the great depression, the dawn of new era. AS Mir Bennett put it at the first meeting three weeks ago, we have common pur- pose We have supreme desire to achieve it." And so said everyone. "The Empire" MT Bennett perorated. Ifs at the cross roads. Which way point faith and hope that way we shall follow" But now, within week of the date on which the Confer ence should close, the guiding star of faith and hope has mysteriously disappeared. lower level of metaphor is in vogue. Phrases about poker parties, horse-dealers, humbug, are bandied about. The common purpose is lost in a war of discrimination about Sta- tistics and the difference between British and Canadian rules of arithmetic. And. what is worse, the Conference has ceased to be an earnest and decorous assembly Of the heads of the self-governing States of the Commonwealth and has become mixed up with the dssensions of a Canadian politi- cal calcus Tt is clear" writes a leading British Conservative and Protectionist paper, that the fortunes of the Conference have become deeply involved in the whirlpool of Canadian politics" The question now is not what can each give to strengthen the En- pire but what is the least that Britain can accept without disrupting the Canadian Con- servative Cabinet
 So far Ottawa has justified everything that Free-traders have said about the folly of aiming at Imperial economic unity and of stalking the interests of this country on economic bargains with the Dominlons we do not know yet how much MT. Baldwin is proposing to give away as the price of saving the face of the Conference, but the discussions have revealed, even more clearly
 
 vergence between the objects and methods of Britain and the Dominions. Nothing has been more remarkable about Ottawa than the fact that although Britain has ceased to be a Free Trade country and is repre- sented by Protectionist Ministers. she should still be unable to strike a rapid bargain with the Protectionist Dominions. However much we may try to avoid the hucksterlng spirit, we are driven into it against our iS all wei but it does not transcend econoic inter ests One has only to look at the history of the Bennett offer to see how Protection ism and economic nationalism are one, and how impossible it is to reconcile them with movements for freer world trade. MT. Ben- nett began on July 2l with the outlines" of the proposals by which the Canadian Government was to find way for Can adian exporters into Empire markets by giving a return way into Canada for the rest of the Empire Britain was asked to tax food and raw materials in return Tor unspecfied concessions in the Canadian tar iff As soon as he began to prepare the details of his offer his Cabinet began to jib. The Protectionist manufacturers-apparenty the most powerful element in the State besieeed the Government and cried ruin if any concessions were made to British manu- lecturers MT Bennett was the more dis r,nsed to listen to them because, faced with defectious among his supporters in the west he could not afford to alienate the industrialsts of the East. patched-up plan was finally launched. and the Can adian Government, throwing modesty to the winds. let it be known how generous it was, and how Britain was to be given anything between f1oO0o, 900 and f4ooOo.ooo more trade a year at the expense of the United States The rude deflation of the Bennett plan by the British experts to trifling matter or ea ooo000 or f300OOo0 a year, its with drsvaI after q firm remonstrance from the Brltish Delegation, the threats of resigna-