We naturally welcome the Westminster's suggestion. We may point out,
however, that all the arguments used for the application of the Referendum in this instance apply to other matters of great importance upon which the decision of the electors is not clear. Stripped to the bone, the West- minster's argument, like that of the Prime Minister, is that there are some questions which are so big and so significant that Parliament ought not to take the responsibility of deciding them without referring them to their masters, the voters. That is the plea which we have always used in regard to the Referendum. The only question between us and the people who think the Referendum might be used occasionally is thus seen to be a question of degree, i.e., whether a measure is big enough to be submitted to the people. The Referendum is clearly getting on. Every one knows the story of the Irish- man who said he had " too great a regard for the truth to be dragging her out on every paltry occasion." That, apparently, is how Mr. Asquith and the Westminster Gazette feel about the Referendum.
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