TARIFF REFORM

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 10713, 23 December 1912, Page 5

TARIFF REFORM

CABLE NEWS

(United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Sopyrtgh t.)

MR BONAR LAW'S PROPOSALS. SPLIT IN THE UNIONIST PARTY. OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. (Received Last Night, 5.5 o'oloek.) LONDON, December 21. The Right Hon F. E. Smith, Unionist member for the Walton Division of Liverpool, speaking at Dudley, said that if the Unionists abandoned Tariff Reform, the party would be so bankrupt in honour, and so saturated in poltroonery, that it would be received with contempt in the constituencies. and would have to. find now leaders and new followers. Mr Bonar Law, Leader of the Unionist N Party, had never suggested that the decision of the food taxes .should be left to the Colonies, and had never proposed to abdicate the responsibility that a. British Government must owe to the British people. Ho had only pointed out. that the situation had largely changed since the Right Hon J. Chamberlain made his proposals. It wa«i now impossible to introduce Imperial preference without a protracted consultation of the Colonies, in that they might sav authoritatively what they considered vital in the carrying out of the policy. The newspapers live prominence to +he alleged dissensions amnvsr the Unionists in connection with the food taxes. The Liverpool Courier (a Conservative organ) .states that the Unionist Party is drifting to destruction. It demands that ,<i conference of the London and Lancashire leader? be held anent the question of the Referendum. The Yorkshire Post deplores the abandonment of the jMo-ewlnni, which would enable many Liberals to vote with the Unionists, and woiild en able the partf to ifroceod while commanding a general assent. The Morning Post strongly advocates food taxes. Other Unionist papers are ignoring the question, hoping thereby to heal the disputo. The Timer l cnnti"iie<.< to advocate the abandonment of the food taxes. Under existing circumstances recinroca.l preference can, it says, well be established without them. The Westminster Gazette sums im the situation by saying: "The Birmingham party urge,« that food taxes are essential. London says that food taxes should not be pressed." Mr J. L. Garvin, editor of the Pall Mall Gazette, and author cf "Imperial Reciprocity," makes* a sensational attack upon Lord Northcliffe, one of the proprietors of the Daily Mail. He blames the Times for following the Daily Mail's repudiation of food duties, and attributes the attitude of both newspapers to Lord Northcliffe'a prodigious business commitments. He declares : "He has no time for the consecutive study of politics. Yet, behind the national scenes he is exercising an irresponsible despotism which no sane society would allow any man to possess." Mr Garvin adds: "No moat trust was ever so dangerous as this nress trust." CAPETOWN, December 21. The Cape Argus say.? that Mr Bonar Law'a speech was a tactical error. It does not believe that any of the Dominions would ask for food duties if the British workers resent them. The Johannesburg Star, a Progressive organ, is imbued with, the conviction that Mr Bonar Law's proposals would lead to enormous mutual benefits. OVERSEA LEGISLATORS COMMENT. NO PRACTICAL PURPOSE. ' (Received Decernber\2l, 8 a.m.) LONDON, December 20. > The Times' Toronto correspondent says that British Uniohists must convince the British people of the Imperial value of preference, and not impose the responsibility of advocating the policy upon the overseas Dominions. j ■ The Chronicle publishes the views •of the Federal Prime Minister (Mr A. Fisher), Mr A. Deakin. Mr W. M. Hughes, and Mr E. D. Milieu on Mr Bonar Law's proposal. The paper, commenting on the statements, says they hesitate to declare themselves so emphatically as Canadian legislators regarding the friction and danger to Empire unity from the proposal, but they do not see any practical purpose in a "new Tory dodge."