the trade
of this country defending at length and in detail the fiscal
system--the purely domestic, internal fiscal system of this
country--from very severe, though perfectly friendly and courteous
criticism on the part of the other self-governing communities. If that
fund of goodwill to which I have referred had been lacking, if ever a
Conference had been called together when there was an actual
anti-colonial party in existence, when there was really a deep hatred
in the minds of a large portion of the people of this country against
the Colonies and against taxation which was imposed at the request or
desire of the Colonies, then I think it is quite possible that a
Conference such as this would not pass off in the smooth and friendly
manner in which this has passed off.

You would hear recrimination and reproaches exchanged across the
table; you would hear assertions made that the representatives of the
different States who were parties to the Conference were not really
representatives of the true opinion of their respective populations,
that the trend of opinion in the country which they professed to
represent was opposed to their policy and would shortly effect a
change in the views which they put forward. You would find all these
undemocratic assertions that representatives duly elected do not
really speak in the name of their people, and you would, of course,
find appeals made over the heads of the respective Governments to the
party organisations which supported them or opposed them in the
respective countries from which they came. That appears to me to open
up possibilities of very grave and serious dangers in the structure
and fabric of the British Empire, from which I think we ought to
labour to shield it.

My right honourable friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer has told
the Conference with perfect truth--in fact it may have been even an
under-estimate--that if he were to propose the principle of preference
in the present House of Commons, it would be rejected by a majority of
three to one. But even if the present Government could command a
majority for the system, they would have no intention whatever of
proposing it. It is not because we are not ready to run electoral
risks that we decline to be parties to a system of preference; still
less is it because the present Government is unwilling to make
sacrifices, in money or otherwise, in order to weave the Empire more
closely together. I think a very hope