HOW TO SECURE THE REFERENDUM.
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—The Referendum which you have so long advocated has, I venture to think and hope, many supporters beyond the Unionist Free Traders to whom you especially address your advice in your issue of November 17th to " support Protectionist candidates with the explicit reservation that a Referendum clause ought to be added to any Protectionist legislation."
Many Protectionists (or, as I would rather they were " Empire Free Traders") liks myself, and others, are, I am sure, most earnestly anxious that a " Safety First " measure should find its place in the Statute Book in the shape of a Referendum Act. Let, therefore, every supporter of a Government candidate be satisfied that his prospective Member will work for the Referendum—or, at any rate, will support such a measure. Politicians are " skilled in finding ways round." Will you, Sir, therefore suggest the question to he Will you, if elected to Parliament, do your best to secure the passage at an early date of a Referendum Bill under which Bills of importance can, if demanded by not less than one-third of the House of Commons, be sub- mitted to a Poll of the People ?
Our correspondent has a clear right to call himself an Empire Free Trader. We wrote of Protectionists because Mr. Baldwin so described himself.—En. Spectator.]
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