A Free-trade demonstration was held in the Queen's Hall yesterday
week, Mr. Arthur Elliot presiding. The chairman having laid stress on the non-party nature of the meeting, Mr. Lloyd-George delivered an interesting speech. There was, he said, a real danger that Protection might seize hold of the imagination of the people unless they woke up and made a real, energetic, and consistent effort to educate the country. It was not enough to refute their opponents' errors ; they must put forward a substantial alternative to their opponents' policy. Our trade was confronted by real dangers and evils, but they would not be cured by the quack remedies of Tariff Reformers. He believed that Governments could do more than they had done to promote British trade and industry if they appealed to the best brains to formulate a great trade policy. Unless Free-traders had such, a policy, they would find that the commercial community would fly to Protection as a city of refuge against foreign compe- tition, and that workmen would fly to Socialism as a protection against unemployment. We confess we should like to see that suggestion put rather less ambiguously. If Mr. Lloyd- George merely means that the Government should throw no new obstacles in the way of trade, but instead shall remove, those which already exist, no Free-trader will take exception to his words. If, however, his declaration in favour of Government promotion of trade means Socialistic action such as the nationalisation of the railways and the fostering of commerce by rates below cost price, he is only preaching Protection under an alias.
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