Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman addressed a public meeting at Dunfermline on
Tuesday evening in defence of the Govern- ment. No anti-Socialist could possibly object to the Prime Minister's statement that the true Imperial policy was to give strength, vigour, and vitality to the Empire, and that it was useless to scour and polish the outside of the cup and platter if the real strength of the Empire—the people at home— were weakened and demoralised and decimated by the evils of drunkenness, depopulation, bad housing, infant mortality, and ignorance. Unquestionably this is the enemy; but Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman does not seem to realise that the most earnest and active of the opponents of his semi-Socialistic schemes base their opposition upon the belief that these evils will be intensified, not ameliorated, by the proposed remedies. It is because we so ardently desire better conditions, not because we are indifferent to existing evils, that we oppose hasty or rash legislation.
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