The House of Lords on Friday week rejected, by a
majority of one, Lord Balfour of Burleigh's Bill to prevent "dumping." The Government, whose own Bill on somewhat similar lines was abandoned last Session, withheld their support from the measure, but the Lord Chancellor spoke on its behalf. Lord Crewe, one of the authors of the Paris economic resolutions of 1916, declared that these resolutions, which were of a definitely Protectionist character, would have been "exceedingly useful if the circum- stances for which they were framed had followed within a year or a little more of the holding of the Conference." Lord Crewe, Lard Emmett, and Lord Beauchamp, while attacking the Bill, admitted the necessity of protecting "key industries." The war has shown that the pure Free Trade doctrine must be qualified by considerations of national defence.
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