Sir GILBERT PARKER (on behalf of Mr. F. E. Smith)asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether his attention had been called to Section 4 of the Payne Tariff Bill now before the Congress of the United States, which proposed to subject to the maximum tariff the products of any country or colony which discriminated against the United States; whether that section would subject Canadian goods to the maximum tariff of the United States unless Canada granted to the United States the intermediate rates and the special concessions granted to France under the Franco-Canadian Treaty; and what steps His Majesty's Government proposed to take in view of the importance of the question as affecting imperial interests and the relations of the United States and France to the British Empire?
§ Sir E. GREYThe answer to the first and second parts of the question is in the affirmative. The matter does not seem to be one on which representations can properly be addressed to the United States Government. Section 4 has been withdrawn from the Bill as presented to the Senate.