The members of our League were delighted with the action of the Government in the Session of 1897, in establishing a preference in our markets in favour of British goods. It will be remembered that we had been disappointed in our hope that Lord Salisbury would have denounced the Treaties in 1892, when the thirty years for which they were fixed would expire, but five years more had elapsed and nothing had been done. I believe the plan adopted by our Government had been suggested by Mr. D'Alton McCarthy, our former President, and in order to get over the difficulty about the German and Belgian Treaties, the preference was not nominally given to Great Britain at all, but was a reduction of duty to all countries which allowed Canadian exports access to their markets on free trade terms. This of course applied at once to Great Britain and one of the Australian Colonies (New South Wales). All other nations, including Germany and Belgium, would not get the preference unless they lowered their duties to a level with the duties levied by Great Britain. The preference was first fixed at one-eighth of the duty just to test the principle. Shortly after this was announced in our Commons, Kipling, who saw at once the force of it, published his striking poem "Our Lady of the Snows," which emphasised the fact that Canada intended to manage her own affairs: Daughter am I in my mother's house, But mistress in mine own. The gates are mine to open As the gates are mine to close, And I set my house in order Said Our Lady of the Snows. . . . . . . . Another strong point was illustrated in the lines: Favour to those I favour But a stumbling block to my foes, Many there be that hate us, Said Our Lady of the Snows. . . . . . . . Carry the word to my sisters, To the Queens of the East and the South, I have proved faith in the heritage By more than the word of the mouth. They that are wise may follow Ere the world's war trumpet blows, But I, I am first in the battle, Said Our Lady of the Snows. This poem pointed out to Great Britain that Canada had waited long enough for the denunciation of treaties which never should have been made, and which were an absolutely indefensible restriction on the great colonies. At a meeting of the council of the British Empire League in Canada held in May a week or two after the Annual Meeting in Ottawa, a resolution was passed: