Welsh Newspapers

Search 15 million Welsh newspaper articles

Hide Articles List

3 articles on this Page

THE POINT OF ATTACK.

News
Cite
Share

THE POINT OF ATTACK. BY degrees we are becoming enlightened as to the origins of the Protectionist campaign. Fuller knowledge, we are bound to say, does not bring with it additional respect for tho leaders of the movement or belief in their sincerity. We know that up to last May the Government allowed the country to suppose that there was nothing amiss with the com- mercial condition of the country. In a speech delivered before the Grocers' Company, Mr. Balfour had gone out of his way to ridicule the theory that the prosperity cf one country meant the decline of another, and Mr. Morley acclaimed this utterance as "the pure milk of the Cobdenic word." Then came the Budget, with the removal of the duty on corn, and the subsequent defence of this step by Mr. Balfour as being in accordance with the general dislike of imposts on food material. But upon the same day that the Prime Minister thus recog- nised the depth of public sentiment upon this subject Mr. Chamberlain went to Birmingham and made his historic declaration in favour of a preferential duty on imported food. IT does not appear that Mr. Chamberlain consulted his colleagues as to the propriety of such a singular course of action. We know, from Mr. Chamberlain's own speeches, that he favoured the retention of the corn duty as forming the nucleus of a preferential tariff in favour of Colonial grain. But he was over- ruled on the point, and he determined to raise the issue before a larger tribunal. It is important to keep in mind the fact that the issue up to that point was between Mr. Chamberlain and his colleagues in the Cabinet. He had been beaten, but he was not the man to take his reverse "lying down." What a disturbing effect his Birmingham speech pro- duced upon the Government and upon the Ministerial party is a matter of history. Rather than accept the decision of the Cabinet, he resolved to plunge his party into chaos and to shake the Government, of which he was still a member, to its basis. Old- fashioned canons might be appealed to to shew that Mr. Chamberlain's course of action was not in harmony with loyalty to his colleagues; but Mr. Chamberlain is above ordinary rules of conduct. His methods, like his economics, are all his own. LORD GEORGE HAMILTON and Mr. Ritchie have since revealed the measures by the Cabinet to preserve to the outer world an appearance of unity, while in reality it was torn into conflicting groups. In his speech at Ealing, the ex-Secretary for India explained how every member of the Cabinet agreed not to enter into any discussion of the burning topic until the close of the session. All this time, however, the Birmingham propaganda was being carried on with unremitting energy. The Free Traders in the Government were silenced, and the process of capturing the party organisations on behalf of Mr. Chamber- lain was allowed to continue unchecked. All attempts to induce the Government to state their policy in the House of Commons were fruitless, and even discussion of the subject was prevented. That some of the Free Traders, at any rate, chafed under this restriction has since become clear. It is not at all difficult to understand why. They felt that they had been outmanoeuvred, and that by consenting, in the interests of party unity, to gag them- selves, they had in a measure opened the gates of the Free Trade citadel to the enemy. IN the meantime, what was the Prime Minister doing in defence of the faith which he had avowed at the Grocers' Company banquet? After Mr. Chamberlain's "bolt from the traces" he sought refuge in the avowal that he possessed an open mInel" on the subject. But this coward's castle was only a temporary residence. Sooner or later it was evident he must recover some more or less definite convictions. Was it to be Free Trade, preferential tariffs with taxes on food, or retaliation upon Protectionist countries 'i It is here that Lord George Hamilton contributes a most startling chapter to the story We must keep in mind the fact that the Prime Minister had defended the removal of the tax on grain as unacceptable to the electors. Now, according to Lord George Hamilton, on the last day of the session the Cabinet was con- vened to consider the fiscal question in connec- tion with certain proposals which were to be submitted by the Prime Minister. Two docu- ments were then brought under consideration by Mr. Balfour. One was his famous pamphlet on "insular Free Trade." The other was a scheme which the Prime Minister wished to put forward as the Government's policy, and this scheme embraced preferential tariffs and the taxation of food. In other words, Mr. Balfour had taken his stand by the side of Mr. Chamberlain, and endeavoured to induce the entire Government to adopt the same attitude. FOR this revelation the thanks of the country are due to the ex-Secretary for India. For, with this information in our possession, it is no longer possible to keep up the pretence that Mr. Chamberlain's policy is his own and that it commits nobody but himself. When Free Traders have hitherto contended that the understanding between Mr. Balfour and Mr. Chamberlain was complete, and that the food taxes were still the central plank in the Protectionist platform, they have been met with the objection that the policy of the Government was laid down in the Sheffield speech. Now, at Sheffield, Mr. Balfour repeated his declaration that the country was not ripe for food taxes—the taxes, that is to say, which he wished the Government formally to include in their programme only a day or two before. From all this welter of tactical manoeuvring and suppressed pamphleteering two broad facts stand out with absolute clearness—that Mr. Balfour is thoroughly at one with Mr. Chamberlain in regard to the desirability of taxing food, and* that he is at the same time convinced that the country will have none of it. WITH this new fact at their disposal, the task of Free Traders is greatly simplified. They will now have a conclusive answer to those Protectionists who object to the associa- tion of the Government with the proposal to tax food. They can shew that these proposals are favoured by the Prime Minister, and that those who objected to them were ousted from the Government. Mr. Chamberlain has left, but only to pursue with more effect the real aims of his friends in Downing-street. As Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman declared at Stirling the other day, the whole edifice of the Protectionist crusade rests upon Mr. Chamber- lain's personality. But for him, he said: there would not have been a hundred men in the whole country talking about tariffs and duties at this moment; and another thing I think can be said with equal coandenep, that iialfour's little palliative of retaliation would never have been heard of at all, and that, in place of all this storm and conflict, this Government would ilil the month of October have been quietly stnggf ring along under the burden of the condem- nation of the \V ;ir Oflke, and with no effective support except that which could be purchased by concessions to the Irish Nationalists. Mr. Chamberlain's scheme must then be the point of attack for Free Traders to keep in view; and the keynote of Mr. Chamberlain's scheme is: You must put a tax on food.

LETTER FROM LORD DUNRA VE.

Advertising