In the House of Commons on Wednesday Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman—most
unwisely, as we think, from the Free-trade point of view—raised an oblique debate on Mr. Chamberlain's new policy, his " peg " being the message from the Government of New South Wales approving of preferen- tial duties and retaliation. We shall not discuss the genesis of those messages, or the mistaken belief of the New South Wales Government, elicited by the Westminster Gazette's cable- gram, that Mr. Chamberlain's views are already those of the Government as a whole. We must note, however, Mr. Balfour'a declaration, which, of course, only dealt with the original official message, which welcomed inquiry, and approved the declara- tion of the Government that every self-governing Colony would be secured in the free exercise of its right to enter into closer trade relations with the Mother-country. Would the Opposition, he asked, be content to sit still and do nothing if foreign countries were to penalise our Colonies for drawing closer to the Mother-country ? But though Mr. Balfour was naturally eager, as every Prime Minister should be, to show that neither vigilance for the interests of, nor sympathy with, the Colonies was wanting in the head of his Majesty's Government, it should be noted that he would not allow any one to draw the absolute deduction that he was already com- mitted to fiscal retaliation, by means of preferential duties, in case Germany should attack Canada. That is satisfactory, for, as we have shown elsewhere, it is a very poor sort of retalia- tion on Germany to tax the food of our poor. "Do that again and I'll try to slap your face, but at any rate I'll slap my own !" is not a position likely to commend itself, to so acute .a brain as that of Mr. Balfour.
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