MR. PIKE PEASEI beg to ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, whether his attention has been called to the statement of Sir Richard Cartwright, acting Prime Minister of Canada in the absence of Sir Wilfred Laurier, made in the Canadian Senate on 11th April, as to the negotiations it was proposed to conduct immediately after the Colonial 1141 Conference to bring into force the Canadian intermediate tariff with certain foreign countries; will he state what are the foreign countries in question, and whether the negotiations would be conducted through the Foreign Office, whether the conclusion of such treaties on the basis of the intermediate tariff would automatically diminish the value of the British preference; and whether such negotiations would in any way bind the action of Canada in extending further preference to the United Kingdom.
§ SIR EDWARD GREYI have not yet seen a report of the speech referred to, and am not aware what are the countries in question. The negotiations with Foreign Powers would, of course, be conducted through the proper channels in a manner agreed upon between the Canadian Government and His Majesty's Government. The application of the intermediate tariff would reduce, protanto, the preference granted to British goods; but the grant of the intermediate tariff to any foreign country would not, apparently, prevent the Canadian Government from altering the British preferential tariff at any time.