CHAP. V] TREATY RELATIONS 1153 
ridiculous in the pursuit of such a policy to refuse to avail 
herself of the markets of the great nation lying alongside ? 
The expressed fear that it will seriously affect imports from 
Great Britain is groundless; the greater part of the agree- 
ment deals with natural products which Great Britain does 
not send us. The range of manufactures affected is com- 
paratively small, and in most cases the reductions are small. 
It appears to be assumed in some quarters that the tariff 
rates agreed upon discriminate in favour of the United 
States and against Great Britain. There is no foundation 
for this. In every case Great Britain will still have the 
same rate, or a lower one. Canada’s right to deal with the 
British preference as she pleases remains untouched by the 
agreement. The adoption of the agreement will probably 
lead to some further revision of the Canadian Tariff in which 
the Canadian Parliament will be entirely free to fix the 
British Preferential Tariff at any rates that may be deemed 
proper. 
In view of the conclusion of the reciprocity arrangement the 
Canadian Government decided! at the Imperial Conference 
to press for the exemption of Canada from the operation of 
the old treaties with Argentina, Austria-Hungary, Bolivia, 
Colombia, Denmark, Norway, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Swit- 
zerland, and Venezuela, which contain most-favoured-nation 
clauses, and are binding on Canada. It may at once be ad- 
mitted that the presence of these clauses is vexatious and 
annoying, but the denunciation is a serious matter unless it 
can be arranged for without involving the denunciation of the 
treaties generally. The proposal goes far beyond the denun- 
ciation of the Belgian and German treaties, for these treaties 
forbad a preference to Great Britain by the Colonies, and were 
an accidental and unreasoning restriction on the internal 
freedom of the Empire, which might properly be removed 
from the Empire as a whole by the denunciation of the 
treaties. To denounce these older treaties merely to free 
Canada would be a very different step. 
In these negotiations the Canadian ministers were to all 
intents and purposes neither less not more than plenipoten-~ 
See Parl. Pap., Cd. 5745, pp. 333-9 ; below, Part VIII, chap. iii.