10 NOVEMBER 1923, Page 2

That was the kernel of the speech. Unless Mr. Asquith's

contention that the number of unemployed who can be affected by Mr. Baldwin's proposals is 140,000, or 10.4 per cent. of the total unemployed, can be definitely disproved, it is impossible not to feel that the "process of definite and detailed interrogation," which Mr. Asquith has promised us when the tariff proposals come out in detail, will be one, as he might possibly phrase it, "of supererogation."