We write just before that Party meeting takes
place, but Mr. Baldwin's friends seem to be con- fident that he is taking the only wise course and consider that if his position is weakened at the meeting an injury most difficult to repair will be done to the Party. The Amin reason for their conviction that he is wise in preferring the quota and a subsidy on home- grown wheat to food taxes, at all events until food taxes are definitely proved to be necessary, is the evidence which is pouring in to the Conservative Central Office from the North of England that the urban voters there are as firmly opposed to food taxes as they were in the days of Mr. Chamberlain. The truth is that most Protec- tionists are suffering from a chilly reaction after their recent hot fit of enthusiasm for Preferential Tariffs. Mr. Bennett's proposal is found, upon careful examination, to offer little help to this country. After all, they think, it might wreck the Conservative Party if this little help were purchased by the imposition of taxes which in a large part of England would be intensely unpopular. It is one thing to convince the South of England ; it is another to move the solid North. Mr. Baldwin has wisely decided to submit himself to the sense of the meeting and to publish a report of the proceedings. He hopes no doubt to end the discord in the Party once for all, even if he should have to give place to another
leader. * * * *
