24 NOVEMBER 1923, Page 2

This policy, it Is declared, will " defend our industries

in the present -emergency," and "in more normal eon-,' ditions enable us to work effectively to secure a more real measure of 'Free -Trade, both -Within the Empire and with foreign countries." For the Free Trader this might mean anything or nothing. One can easily construe Baldwin's words so that it would appear that the Government's policy in Lord Robert Cecil's words is one of " active instead of passive Free Trade." We . are simply to mitigate the unduly and abnormally violent fluctuations of purchasing power and of cost of production which modern -currency discrepancies and generally unsettled conditions have brought about and to attack with the only weapon in our hands the ring of Tariff walls which surrounds us.

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