Page:Problems of Empire.djvu/183

CANADIAN MANUFACTURERS. revenue without increasing the burden on the consumer. One effect of Mr. Chamberlain's policy will be to divert the stream of emigration into the Colonies from the United States or the Argentine Republic. What, Mr. Ross, would have been the population of Canada today if that policy had been inaugurated twenty years ago?

Mr. Ross: Twenty millions.

Mr. Brassey: Yes, sir, I believe you are right. Will not your population increase much faster in the next ten years if this policy is adopted than if it is not?

I come now to the thorny part of my subject. If this policy is to be carried through, we who are advocating it at home will have to give a good answer to those who will ask us: What are the Colonies going to give in return for the benefits they receive from the imposition of the tax on food-stuffs? Two answers can be given. The first is contained in a resolution, introduced by Mr. George E. Drummond at the Congress of Chambers of Commerce at Montreal, to the effect that it was the duty of the Colonies to participate in the defence of the Empire. I ask those Canadians who are clamouring for us to send you our capital and the best of our workpeople for the development of Canadian industries to remember that, if the Colonial and British taxpayers stood shoulder to shoulder, sharing the burdens of Imperial defence, it would not matter, from an Imperial point of view, where a cotton mill existed, whether in Toronto or Manchester. But as long as nearly the whole burden falls on the profits of the British mill, it is not to the interest of the British taxpayer that the mill in Manchester should be closed by the establishment of the mill in Toronto. For the 165