23 MAY 1903, Page 2

We are delighted to find that Mr. Asquith, at any

rate, gives no uncertain sound in regard to Mr. Chamberlain's pro- posal. Speaking of it at Doncaster on Thursday, he declared that "its benefits to the Colonies were in the highest degree problematic and uncertain " ; and "it involved, of a logical necessity, the imposition of a tax upon the great bulk of the food and raw material which we imported from abroad, which formed the subsistence of our people and the basis of our prosperity. From the largest and widest point of view of Imperial policy, it would tend to produce ill-feeling at home against our fellow-subjects in the Colonies, foment jealousies and misunderstandings between the Colonies themselves, and lead to a new and more embittered war of tariffs all round the world."