“WHO SAID PREFERENCE?”

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9462, 3 June 1909, Page 6

“WHO SAID PREFERENCE?”

Post's London Correspondent. . London, April 23. “Catiline” is facetious regarding' the Navy debate in the last of his* ’“intercepted letters” in the Westminster Gazette. > Writing to the traditional Sulla, he says:— “After onr ingenious leader had made his first speech In tne Bouse of Commons, 1 heard the hedge-hogs whispering that at length they had an issue which would sweep us out of the field, and bring Able Tory Party back to the sweet mnplioity of the old Primrose politics. Clearly it was necessary to do something, and happily we had friends on the* front bench who,were as alive to the emergency as we were. We took the, usual precautions, and when A.J.B. came to address meetings of our party he was made aware that the men in front of him'were not going to be cheated out of tariff reform by Dreadnoughts. The New Zealand offer of a battleship came in the nick of .time, and I need not tell you whose was the ‘voice’ that said ‘Preference’ when A.J.B. alluded to it in his ‘lslington speech. Let me say in passing that the success of this innocent manoeuvre exceeded my most sanguine expectations. I had scarcely ventured to hope that A.J.B. wonld rise to it at the first time of asking, and commit himself headlong to our proposition . that Dreadnoughts should be paid for by Preference. He has said other things on this subject at previous times which made it seem doubtful whether we should capture him immediately on this issue. However, we must- follow up this initial success, and I have now taken steps to ensure... that this ‘voice’ shall in future always be heard when be speaks in public on the Naval question. It is, of course, annoying that Joseph Ward should have said that tiresome thing about the New Zealand offer ‘not having been made in the interests of Preference,’ and about his ‘regretting its having been used for party pmposes in England.’ Bus the only moral 1 draw from this is. that the , .colonial part of our organisation is still very imperfect. Sir Joseph Ward should be informed that, if he queers onr pitch in this fashion, we shall be compelled, howto take steps for his removal from the position of New Zealand. In the meantime, onr official attitude must, he that it is merely a natural delicacy on his cart which restrains him from asking for the return which, he, of course, desires, and that it would be the extreme of ingratitude £on our part if we Interpreted his disclaimer in any sense. You, my dear Sulla, will know how to construct a very touching peroration on these lines.” *

The now historic interjection about, Preference was the remark during Mr Balfour’s speech at the Agricultural Hall, which he used to introduce the subject of colonial preference. It was made by a Hew Zealander who happened to ho present, Mr J. O. Morrison, formerly of Wellington, and the Liberal papers, ignorant of this, not unnaturally assumed that it was a “put up job.” - Some of them were furious, denouncing the subterfuge in the roundest terms. Heedless to say, Mr Morrison had .not been put up to make the.interjection. It was quite spontaneous.