17 DECEMBER 1904, Page 3

That is all very well ; but we should like

to ask Mr. Chamberlain a question which puzzles us : How is it, if Protectionist countries are the paradises for the working men which lie describes, that the pauper alien is driven by want from those happy shores to a land like England, which, according to Mr. Chamberlain, has been made barren by the blight of Free-trade ? We ought to see the pauper Briton, driven abroad by Free-trade, seeking employment any- where but at home, and the happy Protectionist forbidding him to share his good things. What Mr. Chamberlain's answer to our question is we cannot say ; but it certainly cannot be that the pauper alien is not driven here by poverty, but is only excluded from the Protectionist paradise at home by tyranny, for Mr. Chamberlain, though mention- ing the tyranny, explains that the pauper aliens "have been driven from their homes by the pressure of want." Again, he tells us that "behind these peoples who have already reached these shores are millions of the same kind." The same causes "that brought tens and twenties of thousands might bring hundreds of thousands, and even millions." Further, we are told, "if sweated goods are to be allowed into this country without restriction, why not the people who make them ?" Apparently, then, the Pro- tectionist paradises—remember, none of the pauper aliens come from Free-trade countries—are filled with millions of sweated people. It is most puzzling, especially when we are asked to imitate here, in the interests of the working man, the conditions which produce pauper emigration abroad.