At Monday's meeting of the Imperial Conference Dr. Jameson intervened
to express the hope that Mr. Lloyd- George would return a more sympathetic answer than, Mr. Asquith, and asked leave to move a resolution in favour of preference on articles already dutiable. Sir W. Laurier having expressed the opinion that Dr. Jameson's resolution should be postponed until the main resolution had been con- sidered, Mr. Lloyd-George then addressed the Conference. The British Government, he said, would not object to consider any suggestion coming from the representative of an important Colony, but no such consideration could induce them to change their position in regard to the tariff, of the United Kingdom. Had a Free-trade resolution been pressed by his Majesty's Government and refused, the Press might have said that the Colonies had refused to listen to the appeal of the Mother-country to be put on equal terms with her children, and that the door had been slammed in the old mother's face by an ungrateful progeny. They had not taken that course, recognising the unfairness of ignoring local conditions and exigencies.
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