It was announced on Friday that among those who have
lately joined the Unionist Free-Trade Club are the Duke of Devonshire, the Earl of Abingdon, the Earl of Lytton, Earl Morley, Earl Cowper, Viscount Peel, Viscount Goschen, Lord Balfour of Burleigh, Lord Belper, Lord Wimborne, Lord Stanmore, Lord Crawshaw, Lord George Hamilton, M.P., Sir Edward Fry, Sir Charles Seely, Sir H, W. R. Fairfax-Lucy, Sir Lawrence Jones, and Sir Lowthian Bell, We trust that this notable accession of strength at the top will be followed by a very great increase in the numbers of the rank-and-file of the Club, and that all Unionist Free-traders throughout the country will now send in their names to the hon. secretary, Sir Cameron Gull, Bart., 10 Hyde Park Gardens, W. It should be explained, in case of misunderstanding, that only Con- servative and Liberal Unionist Free-traders are eligible for election, as the Club is a distinctively Unionist party organisation which means to maintain inviolate both the Union and Free-trade. The Club will not shrink from making its Free-trade views effective whenever the need arises, but it has no intention of encouraging any form of amalgamation with the Liberals. To such action as that taken by Mr. Winston Churchill it is, we take it, definitely opposed. We do not think, indeed, that we are in any way misrepresenting it when we say that its essential object is to work for the re-establish. ment of the Unionist party on a Free-trade basis.
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