§ MR. LOWLES (Shoreditch, Haggerston)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he has any information that Germany intends, at the expiration of the existing Commercial Treaty with this country, to deprive Canada of the most-favoured-nation treatment, owing to the action taken by the Dominion in extending to British goods preferential tariff rates; whether Germany, France, Holland, and other Continental nations give to, and receive from, their respective Colonies preferential tariff rates without complaint from this country, and that such action constitutes a breach of the most-favoured-nation clauses in their respective Treaties with Great Britain; and whether he can state what action the Secretary of State proposes to take in the matter?
MR. CURZONI have already answered this Question in a slightly different form, on June 24th. The notification to which the honourable Member refers has been issued as an independent Act by the German Government to cover the period between the expiration of the Treaty recently denounced by Her Majesty's Government and the conclusion of a new Treaty. It will be communicated to the Canadian Government, who are capable of protecting their own interests in the matter. There has been no cause for complaint by this country against the existence of preferential tariff rates between foreign countries and their colonies.