Page:Problems of Empire.djvu/155

PREFERENTIAL TARIFFS. while 19,500,000 cwt. came from British possessions. We are thus dependent on the United States for one-half of the wheat we require for home consumption. A powerful Navy may give us command of the sea, but in the event of war with the United States, the command of the sea would not ensure the maintenance of our food supply. The United States Government by prohibiting the export of wheat to the United Kingdom—and such a prohibition, if the American people were with their Government in the cause of dispute, would assuredly be effective—could compel us to submit to whatever terms it chose to dictate. Though a war between the two great branches of the English-speaking race is year by year becoming a more remote contingency, and though leading men on both sides of the Atlantic are looking forward to a time when the relations of the two peoples will become closer than they are now, it cannot be forgotten that at the present time we are absolutely at the mercy of the United States, because the quantity of wheat we draw from her is so large that it could not be made good at once from any other source. Such a position is not satisfactory for a great Empire. Since the failure of the Colonial Conference to adopt any arrangement as regards preferential trade, some of the strongest Imperialists in Canada have urged the refusal of any Canadian contribution to Imperial defence (Canada alone of the Colonies has done nothing) until the British people put their food supply on a secure basis. They say, and they say with some justice, 'It is idle for us to contribute to the maintenance of the Imperial Navy when Britain would be forced to make peace within a few weeks of the outbreak of war from fear of starvation.' To render our food supply in 137