Page:The empire and the century.djvu/99

 the Dominion of Canada; the Australian Colonies constitute a united Commonwealth; at no very distant date South Africa will be a federated State from the Zambesi to the Cape. It cannot be questioned that this political concentration will facilitate, if it does not actually bring about, a corresponding commercial rapprochement throughout the Empire.

The chief immediate difficulty lies in the fact that the different States of the Empire have no common fiscal policy, and that differences of opinion, of practice, and of revenue requirements make the adoption of any such common policy seem well-nigh impossible.

The problem of 'preference' is undoubtedly extremely complicated. Nothing is to be gained by revising to recognise its difficulties, the large concession of principle at the outset, the delicate adjustment of interests, the thorny questions which might arise in the early days of its application. It is not my business to discuss them here. I cannot, however, admit that, where the interests at stake are so vital, where the actual circumstances are so favourable, where the ideal is in itself so fine, a satisfactory solution is beyond either the courage or the political gifts of our race.