A good deal of comment has been caused by a
statement made by Mr. Hewins, secretary of the Tariff Reform League, in a speech at Cardiff on Tuesday night. Mr. Hewins said, in answer to an interruption by one of the audience with reference to Chinese labour : "Go and ask your Radical leaders in London whether it is not a fact, as alleged, that they have given a pledge that they will not upset the present arrangement." Asked later by the representative of the Western Mail to whom they had given the undertaking, Mr. Hewins stated that it was to people who were influential in South Africa,—South African millionaires who had contributed to the funds of the party. This amplification of the statement, though reiterated by the Western Mail, is, however, denied by Mr. Hewins, who states that he did not go beyond the declaration just given. We take this to mean that Mr. Hewins still insists that some of the Liberal leaders are pledged not to upset the present arrangement. That is a statement which we are bound to assume that Mr. Hewins made on what he deemed ample authority, and this authority he will doubtless now produce. Till he. does so it will, however, be best to withhold further comment on the matter.
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