On Thursday, August 2nd, the Prime Minister delighted the House
by the neatness of his answer to a question intended to embarrass him and his colleagues over the difference of opinion inside the Cabinet upon the matter of free imports. Rising from his seat between the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Home Secretary, he said that Mr. Churchill's recent speech had stated " less tersely but more eloquently " the policy which he himself had laid down, whereas the speech of Sir William Joynson- Hicks had stated no policy at all. He proceeded to borrow the words (according to the Times) of a learned judge, saying that he was struck " not so much by the diversity of testimony as by the many-sidedness of truth." Knowing that Mr. Baldwin has been anything but a con- vinced Free Trader and remembering that no one could have personally greater temptation to clutch at any plausible means of helping the iron and steel industry, we greatly admire his good-humoured determination to stick to his pledges and not to allow the " Safeguarding" measures insidiously to advance to the point where they would approach a general tariff. He has further " put it in writing " in a letter to the Chief Whip, saying the welcome words : " We are pledged, and shall continue to be pledged, not to introduce Protection."
* * * *
Previous page
