25 JANUARY 1913, Page 18

The City of London Free Trade Committee held a meeting

at Cannon Street Hotel on Monday, Lord Avebury presiding. In an admirable speech Lord Balfour of Burleigh observed that while Free Traders were in a much better position than they were six weeks ago, he was bound in honour and conscience to say that when the next appeal to the country came be was resolved to make the question of the Union of our islands paramount. He would rather risk the reversal of our Free Trade policy than a rupture between these islands. Fiscal policy was reversible, but it would not be so easy to undo the mischief of destroying the Union.