The House of Commons on Tuesday gave the Dyestuffs (Import
Regulation) Bill a second reading by 277 votes to 72. The extreme Free Traders had intended to denounce the Bill as the thin end of the wedge of Protection, but when Mr. Asquith said that the Bill had nothing to do with the tariff controversy, the purely theoretical oprosition collapsed. Sir Robert Home put the case for the Bill very plainly. It is, in effect, a measure of national defence. Dye-making is a key industry, as our textile trades discovered when the war broke out and the supplies from the German monopolists ceased. Mr. Asquith's Liberal Ministry then subsidized British Dyes, Limited, and the first Coalition under Mr. Al.squith gave further help to a larger combine. bon, the British Dyestuffs Corporation. It would be sheer folly, now that the war is over, to let this industry collapse and restore the German monopoly because some misguided Free Traders will not admit that this is an exceptional case. After a few Years the British industry will be able, without State aid. to defy German competition. The textile trades are well able to guard themselves against the risk of having to pay unduly 1°1111 Prices for British dyes.
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