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PREFACE
xix

to take without delay all the measures, whether temporary or permanent, requisite for giving full and complete effect to this policy forthwith." This indecent haste can only have one meaning so far as this country is concerned. It is designed to enable our Protectionists to reverse the permanent fiscal policy under cover of a war emergency, and by the aid of the hot passions and confused judgment which such a situation engenders. This interpretation is supported by the action taken by the Colonial Secretary, before the ink of this Report was dry, in directing the Colonies to impose forthwith, and for five years after the war, an export duty of £2 a ton upon all palm-kernels exported to foreign countries. Primarily directed to destroy the German manufactures of palm-oil, a basis of several important products, such as soap, margarine, and oil-cake, this return to our early colonial policy of preference for the home market will create alarm in all neutral foreign countries, and will, by enhancing the uncertainty of

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