Page:The Australian Commonwealth and her relation to the British Empire.djvu/9

 Mother Country. You led the way there most nobly, and I think it will always remain to the credit of that illustrious Canadian statesman, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, (loud applause) that he carried that great measure. You are fortunate in Canada in your public men. You have got a splendid Prime Minister now, (hear, hear, and applause) and you had a splendid Prime Minister before. (Applause.) And I can see in the Ministers several other men who would make splendid Prime Ministers if typhoid made any further mischief in Ottawa. (Applause and laughter.)

The British Empire does not buy as much from us as we buy from the British Empire. We buy only 25 per cent, from foreign countries, but we sell 39 per cent of our production to foreign countries and only 61 per cent, to the British Empire. So that you see the balance of trade is all on the loyal side. (Laughter.) We give a preference to the Mother Country which costs $5,000,000 a year in hard cash. There are suggestions for reciprocity and preference by acts of Parliament which, I think, elicit warm support from Australia, as from Canada; but, just as Australia and Canada wont let the Mother Country shape their customs policy, so we are men enough not to try to force the point against the conviction of the British people. (Hear, hear.) The time may come when the majority of the people of the Mother Country may find our ideas to be in their interest, too. But I will tell you what occurs to me: There is one way of enjoying the blessings of reciprocity and preference without waiting for those acts of Parliament that may never come. Why can't every man of us in the British Empire, every day, give a preference in his purchases to the Empire? (Hear, hear, and applause.) Why should not there be a trade mark for the British Empire which would enable us, wherever we are, to give that preference? If I were living in a village in Canada—in my political career I was always a great Free Trader, but as an official—I don't know what I am. (Laughter.) But I want to say this, and I think it is a creed we can all agree about—If I were living in a small village in Canada I would buy everything I could from the people in my own village. (Hear, hear.) Local patriotism is at the very heart of all the patriotisms of the British Empire. If I could not get what I wanted in