On Wednesday Mr. Graham White opened an unusually interesting discussion
on the Board of Trade Vote with an admirable review of the effect of recent events upon the economic situation. The German absorption of Austria had, he believed, altered the economic balance of Europe. The world stood in danger of being divided up between a number of closed empires each working for complete self-sufficiency within its own boundaries. Mr. Lees-Smith was mildly critical of the British tariff system and in particular of its effect upon the export trade, but appeared anxious that his party should not be suspected of any lingering attachment to Free Trade. It was noticeable that the Laboir backbenchers seemed much more ready to applaud the second part of this argument than the first. Both Sir Arthur Salter and Sir Percy Harris appealed for a return to the policy of the Open Door in the colonial empire. They maintained that although the actual damage done to the trade of foreign countries by our colonial preferences was slight, their psychological impor- tance bad been immense.
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