Page:Problems of Empire.djvu/148

PROBLEMS OF EMPIRE. though the rate of growth is getting slower; but what would their growth be in the next century if their productions were given an advantage in British markets? The flow of emigration would be diverted from the United States and the Argentine Republic to Canada, to Australia, or South Africa; and in the great struggle which is to come in the not far distant future we shall need all the strength we can muster under the British flag. In a period when trade is less prosperous than it is now, a period which will probably commence about the time that the next Government comes into office, a demand is certain to be made for a reduction in the expenditure on the Navy and Army. The burden of defending our great Empire will in fact become too heavy to be borne by the taxpayers of these small islands alone. As our Colonies increase in wealth and importance, and when they do not need so large a proportion of their resources for the development of their territory, they must bear their fair share of the burden. How is this to come about?

Nearly twelve years ago I spent a long day at the Cape with Mr. Hofmeyr, then just back from the first Colonial Conference, where he had advocated his now nearly forgotten proposal, that every part of the Empire, preserving its existing tariff against Imperial goods, should over and above that, impose a differential duty of five per cent. against non-Imperial goods, the proceeds of this duty to be devoted to the maintenance of the Imperial Navy. Mr. Hofmeyr's proposal seems to me to contain the germs of the policy which is needful for the Empire to-day, viz., Preferential Trade within the Empire. 130