assented and gradually drifted towards
independence.

During the war these colonies had sent their contingents to help the
Mother Country, and at the declaration of peace desired an Imperial
Federation throughout the British Empire, but the politicians in the
Humanist Government saw no profit in Empire connections. Sentiment had
no place in Socialistic policies.

Canada gave free trade to the United States of America, and the barriers
between India and the surrounding nations were dropped, whilst the
various parts of the British Empire gradually drew apart from Great
Britain.

In Asia, freedom of exchange between the nations had welded Russia,
India, China, Japan and Siam into a great federation of wonderful
prosperity. It was called "the United Nations of Asia."

The barriers of trade that formerly existed between these nations seemed
as absurd as a farmer dividing his farm into little plots and trying to
cultivate all kinds of plants on each plot instead of putting only wheat
in wheat land and corn in corn land.

As Owasi, the great Japanese statesman who brought about the coalition,
put it, "Let Asia have the intelligence to utilise its lands to the best
advantage. Let it develop each nation's products as the result of
natural selection. We can grow rice in India, we can grow wheat in
Russia. We can put up a high tariff wall and grow rice in Russia, if we
grow it in a hothouse; but it would not be so profitable as raising
wheat. Tariff walls are trade restrictions. They are as obsolete as the
great wall of China."

"But freedom of exchange will close up some industries," said a critic.

"Yes, if they are run at a loss," Owasi replied, "and besides, some one
must pay for that loss, and a loss to one nation instantly acts upon
others. Freedom of interchange of trade is reciprocal, both nations gain
or they wouldn't trade--and there is amity. When trade is restrained
competition commences. Competition soon becomes jealous of the
restricted territory and war begins. Commercial wars often begin with a
tariff and end with a shell. It is at first a commercial war, but as its
intensity develops the bullet and the shell come in. Artificial barriers
are obsolete in these days of flying. The airship should be the
peace-bringer of the world."

So Eastern and Central Asia developed into great producing nations with
the consequent desire for trade expansion--particularly with Australia
and with the markets of Western Eur