LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
UNIONIST POLICY.
[TO THE EDITOR ON THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—Lord Heneage has most wisely and usefully reminded us bow the great majority of the Liberals was obtained in
1906. viz., by dropping the unpopular policy of Home Rule on which the party was split and fastening attention on the errors of its opponents, and very wisely suggests that we should learn wisdom from them by dropping the policy on which we are split (Tariff Reform) and fastening attention on Home Rule. No more useful letter could possibly have been written at this juncture. To watch the struggles of our party to get free from the bonds which have enmeshed her for nine years is most instructive and interesting. There are two types of Tariff Reformers. The first type thinks it is quite possible to draw up a tariff which will stand the daylight of a Referen- dum, and the second type which realizes the difficulty, if not the impossibility of the task. The first type, if simple, is honest, and is busy saying to the second, "If you can't draw up a tariff which will stand the daylight, drop it, for we have no right to ask for it. We have promised the nation a Referendum on Tariff Reform ; we must keep our promise or drop the policy, for it is no use going to the country on a broken promise, because if we do not trust the nation the nation will not trust us."
Those Tariff Reformers who have a sense of proportion and who are really desirous of saving both the Church and Ulster are very unsparing in their use of epithets towards our leaders. " Fools, idiots, lunatics," may be heard on all sides. To the question, " Why was the promise of a Referendum on Tariff Reform made and then withdrawn ?" no satisfactory answer is or can be forthcoming. That promise, broken or withdrawn, call it which you like, bars our path to victory at a General Election, and many Tariff Reformers, who are Conservatives as well, would prefer that if our leaders cannot frame a tariff which will pass muster they should say so like men. Our party is hopelessly split and our leaders at last fortunately know it. That is all to the good. We can either definitely drop Tariff Reform or promise that the nation shall be called in as umpire to decide between us when a tariff is ready, but that decision must be taken as a separate and distinct issue. It is no use attempting to cover the pill with the jam of Church Defence, Anti-Home Rule, Anti-Lloyd George at a General Election. Nor would it be of much use to promise a Referendum on Food Taxes only, and to give a blank cheque for the rest of the tariff, because our broken promise has made the nation thoroughly suspicious of the whole policy of Tariff Reform. The Conservative Party has a most useful and necessary function to perform in the country's life. When the present unhappy period of bitterness and strife shall have passed away it will serve as a warning to future generations of Conservative statesmen that radical changes had best be left to Radicals.—I am, Sir, &c., The Waterhouse, Bollington, Macclesfield. E. L. °myna.
Previous page
