A—s

388

Eleventh Day. li May 1907.

given for the policy which is embodied in this resolution. Well, this is no place to embark upon a review of the political situation here, or elsewhere; hut it is not altogether irrelevant to the discussion to present two or three considerations for the members of the Conference to reflect upon. This is not the first time the question of Protection has been an issue between parties in this way even within my memory. Dr. JAMESON : That horrid word " Protection "! Mr. LLOYD GEORGE : I will accept any word. I do not want to quarrel about words. What is your word ? Dr. JAMESON : Colonial preference. Mr. LLOYD GEORGE : Well-it was not presented in that form then. In 1885 it was called " Fair Trade." They always change the name. In 1885 it was presented in the form of Fair Trade. The Conservative Party took it up very heartily. At that time it looked as if, to use Lord George Hamilton's phrase, it were "a winning horse," but it was beaten; Free Trade won, I think, by a majority of 100. That was a time of very bad trade. So these proposals, with regard to imposing tariffs on foreign goods, had every advantage which the circumstances of the moment could give them. Hut what frightened the country off Protection then is what will frighten it off Protection again, and that is not unimportant for you to consider when you think of your proposals for Colonial preference. What frightened the country then was the fear of a tax, or a duty, on food. The agricultural labourers in the counties, the miners and the artisans, would not have it. What happened in 1886 —and here is a thing I want you to reflect upon, if I may put it in that form without offence—was that an opportunity then presented itself for the Fair Trade party to come into power on one condition, and that was that it should jettison its Protectionist policy. The Liberal Party proposed a measure which alienated a very considerable portion of its own friends. The Liberal Unionists were then Free Traders, and they said to the Tory party : " We are quite willing to combine with you on a " policy of resistance to these Irish proposals on one condition, that the admin- " istration, when it is formed, is to be a Free Trade one." And Protection was abandoned. In 1885 no one could possibly have prophesied what would have happened in 1886. It was something which occurred quite suddenly and unexpectedly. It was a shock even, I think, to Mr. Gladstone's best friends, and in 1886 the Conservatives, who were pledged to Protection and tariffs, came in as a Free Trade party and remained in power as a Free Trade party for 20 years. So much were they a Free Trade party, that even the shilling duty on corn which was put on in an emergency was taken off when it might very well have been used for the purpose of preference to the Colonies. They did not take it off for the sake of preference. The Unionist party were in as a Free Trade party, and were in for 20 years as a Free Trade party, and the proposal which you are now making to us for a preference on Colonial wine they would not look at, they were so squeamish in their Free Trade principles : that was the Unionist party for 20 years. Although in 1885 they were Protectionists up the- the lips, in 1886 they became Free Trade, because, I will not say, it was the temptation of getting in, because that would be an unfair reflection, and the sort of reflection that, though parties make them against each other, is, I think, unjustifiable—but they felt there was a bigger, a more urgent and more imminent issue; in their judgment, the country was face to face with a possible disaster, and they had to save it even at the risk of throwing over their Fair Trade principles. They never became a Protectionist party again until the last election. They were beaten in 1885

Preferential Trade. (Mr. Lloyd (teorgo.)