BRITISH POLITICS.

Gisborne Times, Volume X, Issue 1020, 13 October 1903, Page 2

BRITISH POLITICS.

EARL SPENCER GETTING CANTANKEROUS.

By Electric Telegraph—Per Press Association —Copyright. LONDON, October 11.; Lord James of Hereford opposes .axation of food in any form. Earl Spencer, addressing the Eighty Club, characterised Mr Chamberlain as a most rcculcss and unscrupulous statesman who never hesitated to use any weapon to advance liis cause.

A ROWDY MEETING

MR RITCI-IIE RECEIVES A 110 -

TILE RECEPTION

By Telegraph—Press AssociationCopyright.) Received 10.44 p.m., Oct. 12.

LONDON, Oct. 12. The Hon, Mr Ritcnie, addressing a meeting at Croyuon, had a mixed reception, the audience hooting and roaring •' Rule Britannia.” When tile fear was expressed that America would show great resentment, and punisn Canada if prefer-' * eice were gi\en to wanadi'an corn, the statement was met wrtn cries of “ Ruubisn l” “ Coward !” - 1 ' The Mcivinley, tariff does ‘not consider us.”

. Throughout the speech, the Cobdenite arguments were met with ribald and contemptuous comment. Mr Ritcnie complained of tho .suddenness with which Mr Chamberlain had launched his policy upon the country witiiout consulting the Cabinet, He admitted that it was an attractive policy. He personally, ho said, was prepared to d-o all that ho legitimately could to bind the colonies closer. He auded : I proposed to Mr Chamberlain and the Cahinet that a iralter of such vital importance should he examined by an unprejudiced tribunal, possibly a Royal Commission.. When Mr Balfour offered me the Chancellorship of the Exchequer, I hesitated, thinking that it was extremely likely that the question of preference would come up. Mr Chamberlain desired a shilling corn tax retailed for the purpose of giving preference to the colonies. I determinedly opposed this, threatening to resign, Knowing that if the shilling duty .was retained and given to Canada it would only be the commencement ol a much larger sclicmo for taxing bread, meat, and all kinds of produce,”

Received 11.2 p.m., Oct, 12. LONDON, Oct. 12. The Daily Telegraph authoratively reveals that Mr Balfour was anxious that Mr Chamberlain should succeed Mr Ritchie, Mr Chamberlain declined, and recommended Mr Ritchie as temporary, stop-gap, Chancellor, An open-air meeting of three thousand workmen at Liverpool on Sunday resolved that Messrs Balfour and Chamberlain's policy would mean a little load at Home and the apple of discord, and called upon every worker to condemn the monstrous absurdity that workers could be made richer by compelling tliem to pay for more than bread and meat and preventing them spend wages to the greatest possible advantage.

VARIOUS OPINIONS,

By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright

Received 12.34 a.m., Oot. 13. London, Oet. 12.

Mr Berridge, the Liberal candidate who opposes tho Hon. Alfred Lyttelton at Warwick, in tho course of an address at LoamiDgton, denied that tho Colonies desire to impose on tho Motherland a policy meaning taxation of tho baro necessities of life to the poorest people. New York, Oet. 12.

Tho Now York Herald says that Mr Chamberlain’s argument in favor of preferential trade establishes the urgency of American and Canadian reciprocity.

Paris, Oct. 12.

M. Moline, ex-Premior, interviewed, declared that Mr Chamberlain’s protectionism aimed chiefly at Germany and America. If he wore an Englishman he would bo a freetrader, since the suggested tariffs would displace tho clientele which Britain with her onormous carrying trade has acquired.

The tremendous raDgo covered by the preferential question enables Mr Chamberlain to vary his text every time ho speaks to groat British audiences. At Greenock he has presented tho problem of wlikt would be done in Great Britain if foreign nations unload their surplus products upon it during the approaching period of commercial depression. The ex Colonial Secretary does not mince matters. Will British workmen allow their national industries to bo slaughtered like sheep ? he asked; nor is there any doubt as to what the answer would be were British workshops to begin to close down while a great party, with capable leaders, declared fiscal reconstruction to be remedial. By insisting upon the paramount importance to the working classes of securing full employment and fair wages, he attacks the contention that cheap bread is the main desideratum. Certainly compulsory idleness is the worst of all industrial evils and the one most severely felt by the workman and hia family. We do not suppose for a moment that protection or preferentialism would be a panacea, but we all know that free trade has proved itself anything but a panacea, and under the very probable circumstances suggested by Mr Chamberlain, of foreign rolling mills dumping their output into Britain if their own protected market became slack, protection would be distinctly remedial.—N.Z. Herald.