CHAP. II] IMPERIAL CO-OPERATION 1467
provisions in existing treaties between Great Britain and
any foreign Power which prevent the self-governing dependencies
of the Empire from entering into agreements of
sommercial reciprocity with each other or with Great Britain
should be removed.” The Conference also passed a resolution
in favour of Imperial preference, and pending the time when
the United Kingdom would adopt this plan, they recommended
that the Colonies should take steps to grant intercolonial
preference. Their recommendations were due to
the existing restrictions on the Australasian Colonies under
which they were not permitted to enter into differential
tariff agreements, except, under the Act of 1873, with the
adjoining Australian Colonies. The treaties of which it was
desired to secure a repeal were those with Belgium of 1862
and with the German Zollverein of 1865, which precluded
the grant by the Colonies of preferential treatment to the
United Kingdom.
Recommendations were made in favour of a fast Atlantic
and a fast Pacific service between Vancouver and Sydney,
and for the formation of a Pacific cable to connect Canada
and Australasia with, if possible, a neutral landing-ground
on one of the Hawaiian Islands.?
The Imperial Government replied to the recommendations
of this Conference in dispatches of June 28, 18952 which
expressed the final decision which has been arrived at with
regard to the various points of importance discussed at the
Conference. The first of the dispatches from Lord Ripon
explained at length the reasons why Her Majesty’s Government
could not undertake the arrangements for a preferential
tariff. On the other hand, it was recognized that the
agreement for reciprocal treatment between two Colonies
stood on a different footing and might be accepted, but nevertheless,
as such arrangements might injuriously affect the
' 36 & 37 Vict. c. 22. See Part V, chap. vi.
* See Parl. Pap., C. 7553, 7632, 7824. For the cable, see Ewart, Kingdom
of Canada, pp. 275-88. Hawaii was found impossible, because the United
States annexed the islands; Canada Sess. Pap., 1900, No. 55-55 b.
‘ (. 7824; this was one of the last acts of Lord Ripon as Secretary of
State. Cf. Jebb, Imperial Conference, i. 159-93, 232-42.
