Page:The New Protectionism.djvu/158
Commissions to secure equality of treatment for the commerce, investments and other property interests, of the subjects of the treaty Powers, in all backward or undeveloped countries not under the political control of any Power. Such Commissions might by concerted action exercise a restrictive control over the nature of the trade with "lower races," precluding, for example, the importation of arms or alcoholic liquors. They might also exercise a supervising authority over the loans and investments made by financiers to the Governments or private persons in these backward countries, and over the methods of business exploitation employed by the agents of the investing companies.
Whether these Commissions should endeavour to interpret "equality of opportunity" by some process of apportioning special spheres of interest and enterprise to the members of the several Powers, or whether they should encourage direct co-operation in the work of investment and development between business men of different nations, is a question into which I need not enter here. But readers may be