THE WEST INDIAN PREFERENCE
In the autumn of 1897 the report of a Royal Commission on the condition of affairs in the West Indian Islands was published. Field-Marshal Sir Henry Norman disagreed with the other two members of the Commission, and put in a minority report, showing in effect that the real way to relieve the distress in the sugar industry of the West Indies, was for Great Britain to put countervailing duties on bounty favoured sugar coming into her markets. I was much impressed with Sir Henry Norman’s report as to the condition of the West Indies, and came to the conclusion that we in Canada might do something to aid on Imperial grounds.
I wrote, therefore, to Principal George M. Grant, one of our most energetic and brilliant colleagues, asking him to let me know when he would be in Toronto, as I wished to have a long conference with him. On the 29th December, 1897, we met, and I discussed the whole question with him and asked him to go to Ottawa, and urge Sir Wilfrid Laurier and Mr. Fielding to increase the sugar duty in order that Canada might be able to give a preference to West Indian Sugar. I pointed out that such action would be popular, and that I was satisfied both parties would support it. I had been pressing Sir Wilfrid and the Government on many points, and thought that in this matter they had better be approached from a different angle. Grant took up the idea eagerly, and promised to go to Ottawa and do his best. On the 3rd January, 1898, he wrote me “(Private and confidential)”:
A Happy New Year to you! I have just returned from Ottawa. Had an hour with Fielding discussing the West Indian question, which he understands thoroughly. I think that something will be done, though perhaps not all that we might wish at first.
Had an hour also with Laurier. First, the preference hereafter is to be confined to Britain. That is settled, but this is of course strictly confidential.
Secondly, he seemed at first to think that we had gone far enough with our twenty-five per cent. reduction, till we could see its workings, but when I argued for going steadily along that line he said, “I do not say yea, but I do not say nay.” I intend to push the matter.
He is in favour of the cable, but thinks that we cannot take it up this session.
He impresses me favourably the more I study him. He has a truer understanding of the forces in Britain than Tupper in my opinion.
Of course I told Fielding that the West Indian suggestion was yours, and that I cordially endorsed it. He is anxious to do something, but thinks that we must ask in dealing with them a quid pro quo.
Shortly before it was announced Sir Wilfrid Laurier told me the Government were likely to give West Indian sugar a preference. And on the 5th April, 1898, Mr. Fielding introduced his Budget, and in a most eloquent and statesmanlike speech declared that Canada had her Imperial responsibilities, and that she would lend “a helping hand to our sister colonies in the south.” This was received with great applause from both sides of the House, and Grant and I were not only much pleased at the success of our efforts, but still more gratified to find the universal feeling in Canada in favour of Mr. Fielding’s action. A few days after, on the 9th April, Grant wrote to me:
I am sure that my thorough discussion on the West India matter with Mr. Fielding did good, but the suggestion came from you. We may be well satisfied with the action of the Government, but it will be bad if the public gets the idea that the British Empire League is pressing them. It is our task rather to educate public opinion. Things are moving steadily in the right direction.
P.S.—Mulock is evidently aiming at Imperial penny postage. Good!
Some time after this the German Government put the maximum tariff against all Canadian goods, and Mr. Fielding met this by a surtax of ten per cent. on all German goods entering Canada. This changed the whole supply of sugar for Canada from Germany to the West Indies to their great advantage.
On the 10th March, 1898, the Annual Meeting of the British Empire League was held in the Private Bills Committee Room in the House of Commons. It was a most successful meeting. Four Cabinet Ministers were present, Sir Louis Davies, Sir Wm. Mulock, Hon. J. Israel Tarte, and Hon. Charles Fitzpatrick. Sir Charles Tupper and Sir Mackenzie Bowell ex Prime Ministers, and many members of the Senate and the House. Those named above addressed the meeting as well as Principal Grant and Colonel Sam Hughes.
Sir Wm. Mulock succeeded this year in securing Imperial Penny Postage, which was one of the objects for which the British Empire League had been working. It was managed with great boldness and skill by Mr. Mulock. His first step was to announce that on and after a certain date some three or four months in advance, all letters stamped with the ordinary three cent domestic rate would be carried to Great Britain without further charge. He knew that objection would be raised to his action, but that it would bring the question to the forefront. The Imperial Government objected to deliver the letters, and said the matter would have to be considered at a conference. Mr. Mulock then answered that a conference should be held, which was agreed to, but he insisted it should not be a departmental affair, that he should only be asked to discuss it with men of his own rank, that is with Cabinet Ministers. This also was agreed to, and it was not long before the matter was settled. Mr. Mulock sent me a cable telling me of his success as soon as he came out of the meeting where the resolution was passed.
On the 28th August, 1898, a large deputation of the Executive Committee of the British Empire League met Mr. Mulock at the Toronto railway station on his arrival from England, to welcome him home, to congratulate him upon his success, and to invite him to a complimentary banquet to be given in his honour.
The banquet took place on the 15th September, at the National Club. Principal Grant, Alexander McNeill, and Sir Sandford Fleming all came to Toronto to attend it. It was a most successful affair.
The Lieut.-Governor Sir Oliver Mowat, who was one of our vice-presidents, attended, also Lord Herschel, Hon. Richard Herschel, Hon. Charles Russell, Sir Frank Smith, Mayor Shaw, and a large and distinguished company.
I was in the chair and proposed the health of Mr. Mulock. The World of the following day, the 16th September, 1898, reported me as follows:
Colonel Denison, inspired by the nobility of the dominant idea of the evening, looked like a general standing on the ramparts just won by his troops. He spoke of the double aim of the League, to preserve the permanency of the British Empire, and secondly to procure closer intercourse between the parts. He dwelt on the wonderful advance made by the idea of federation and the disappearance of the “Little Englander.” It was not enough to denounce the German and Belgian treaties, or to have a preferential tariff. There should be no rest until a mutual preferential tariff had been secured.
Lord Herschel, Sir Oliver Mowat, Mr. Mulock, Principal Grant, Alexander McNeill, Sir Sandford Fleming, Mr. George Hague of Montreal, Geo. E. Casey, and W. F. Maclean all made loyal and patriotic speeches, Alexander McNeill’s being especially eloquent and powerful.
Our League was much gratified not long afterwards at an article which appeared in the London Daily Mail of the 21st November, 1898, under the heading “Where Imperialism comes from.” After referring to many things Canada had done, preferential tariffs and preferences to the West Indies, penny postage, &c., it concluded as follows:
By their works ye shall know them, and by the record of Canada’s works is her magnificent, constructive, peaceful Imperialism made known to the world. Yet its full strength can only be measured by going among Canadians in their homes and noting—and becoming affected by—the palpitating Imperialist life of the people, which even the coldness of the mother country cannot damp. When future historians come to write the history of the Empire’s later development they will have much to say of Canada’s Imperialist lead. At present we don’t make half enough of this rich and beautiful Dominion—an Empire in itself—and its enthusiastically loyal sons.