Mr. Asquith, addressing a large public meeting at Cardiff on
Monday, dealt trenchantly and effectively with Mr. Chamberlain's Limehouse speech. He pointed out that the only reply that his analysis of Mr. Chamberlain's Fiscal proposals in the autumn of 1903 had elicited was " You are a lawyer !" He had pursued the same methods this autumn, and the answer was " You are not a gentleman !" His alleged offence was that he had compared Mr. Chamberlain and Mr. Balfour to card-players and footpads. As to the first metaphor, it was borrowed from Mr. Chamberlain's ally, the Times [which described the relations between Mr. Chamber- lain and Mr. Balfour as those prevailing between "accom- plished whist-players "]; as regards the second, he had been careful to add that it must not be thought he was imputing predatory intentions to either of the two statesmen. Mr. Chamberlain's speech was unique in the course of the con- troversy in that it did not contain a single figure ; but it was not surprising that Mr. Chamberlain turned his back on figures, since they were fatal to so much of his case. Figures, for example, showed that, contrary to Protectionist allega- tions, our exports were increasing faster than those of our most formidable rival—Germany—and absolutely disproved the assertion of Mr. Chamberlain's son, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, that we were exporting less manufactured goods and more raw materials, and importing more manufactured goods and less raw materials. The statistics of the tinplate trade, again, were disastrous alike to Protectionists and Retaliationists. In conclusion, Mr. Asquith dealt with Mr. Chamberlain's remarks on alien immigration, contending that the mass of these poor aliens were driven here by precisely the conditions which Mr. Chamberlain sought to establish in this country to the prejudice of our own working classes.
Previous page
