stuffs so as to give a preference to colonial imports. But the question of going to anoth- 

 er election at all on a programme including food-taxes was now raised again on what 

 started purely as a side issue. It was thought by the leaders of the party that the time 

 had come when an explicit declaration should be made that Mr. Balfour's proposal, be- 

 fore the general election of December 1910, to submit the first Tariff Reform Budget 

 after the Unionists returned to office to a Referendum, was no longer the party policy; 

 and Lord Lansdowne accordingly made a statement to that effect at the Albert Hall on 

 November i4th. No sooner had it been made than an agitation arose in certain Union- 

 ist quarters, especially in Lancashire, where it was contended that harm would be done 

 to their electoral prospects by dropping the proposal; and the cry was taken up in circles 

 where the food-taxes had always been disliked, with the result that pressure was put on 

 Mr. Bonar Law to make a definite pronouncement on the w r hole scheme of Imperial 

 Preference. This he did at Ashton-under-Lyne on December i6th, but without the' 

 effect that was presumably intended. 



A large part of Mr. Bonar Law's speech was devoted to combating the claims of the 

 Radical party that they were the peculiar friends of the working classes; on the contrary 

 he insisted that the party now in power were occupied mainly in work of 

 ^ r ' hi Law ' s destruction, arid that the real social needs of the community could only be 

 speech. me t by a Unionist government. After criticising Mr. Lloyd George for 



offering what were only quack remedies, and declaring that the most im- 

 portant question of the day, so far as the industrial class was concerned, was to raise the 

 level of wages throughout the country, which Tariff Reform would help to do, he pro- 

 ceeded to explain at length the main lines of the Tariff Reform programme, and particu- 

 larly its relation to the policy of Imperial Preference. He repudiated the allegation that 

 Tariff-Reform was simply old-fashioned Protectionism. It was not proposed to bolster 

 up industries which were not naturally suited to the country, or to enable manufacturers 

 to secure an artificial monopoly. Tariff Reform involved the imposition of duties smaller 

 than in any other country, and its object was to give British workmen a preference in 

 the home market over their foreign competitors. Similarly the object of Imperial 

 Preference was to unite the Empire on lines of trade, and to secure for the United King- 

 dom the largest possible advantage in the British oversea markets. It was in connection 

 simply with Colonial Preference that food duties were included in the Unionist pro- 

 gramme, and he adhered to that policy in spite of all the misrepresentations to which it 

 lent itself. " For nine years we have kept the flag flying, and if there is any sincerity in 

 political life at all, this is not the time, and I am not the man, to haul down that flag." 

 But he wanted to make clear exactly what this meant; and here Mr. Law announced a 

 new departure which to some extent appeared inconsistent with his previous utterance: 



"If our countrymen entrust us with power, we do not intend to impose food duties- 

 What we intend to do is to call a conference of the Colonies to consider the whole question 

 of preferential trade, and the question whether or not food duties will be imposed will not 

 arise until those negotiations are completed. . '. . We do not wish to impose them. 

 They are not proposed by us for the sake of Protection, and there is no Protection in them. 

 They are proposed solely for the sake of Preference, and if when the conference takes place 

 the Colonies do not want them I will put it far stronger than that, unless the Colonies 

 regard them as essential for Preference then also the food duties will not be imposed. .^All 

 that we ask is that our countrymen should give us authority to enter into that negotiation, 

 with power to impose certain low duties on foodstuffs, and within strict limits which will 

 never be increased. ... I hope it will be possible, and I think it may be possible* that 

 if any readjustment is necessary it will only be a duty on wheat. I hope so, but I do not 

 think it would be reasonable to ask the Colonies to meet us if our power of negotiation were 

 limited. ... If the Colonies do not think those duties necessary for Preference, they 

 will never be imposed; if they do think them necessary, then I for one do not believe that the 

 people of this country would not be ready to make that readjustment which is necessary to 

 effect the purpose." 



As regards the Referendum, Mr. Law repeated Lord Lansdowne's declaration, and 

 justified it on the ground that a pledge to submit the result of the negotiations with the 

 colonies to a Referendum in the United Kingdom would not be fair to the colonies. 



Next morning this speech had a " mixed " reception both in the Unionist Press and 



