Mr. Winston Churchill made an excellent fighting speech at Halifax
on Monday night. He dealt chiefly with Mr. Chamberlain's new Commission of Inquiry, and subjected the proposal to some very pertinent criticisms. Mr. Chamberlain bad declared at Leeds that he did not appeal to men who were doing well in their business, but that he wanted those tvho 1 . felt the injury of foreign competition. This was the kind of evidence which the Commission was to consider, and the kind of experts who were to compose it. " Nothing will induce him to listen to what the great financial authorities think of his new proposals. He does not want the successful men, he wants the failures." Mr. Churchill pointed out the partisan character of the Commission, and the fact that most of the members had already declared for Protection. Though we think that Mr. Churchill goes too far in assuming that the financial advantage of the members of the Commission is their motive for sitting on it, we agree with him that a dangerous agency has been created for bargaining with particular in- terests for political support.
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