LETTER FROM MR BALFOUR.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 13097, 23 April 1908, Page 7

LETTER FROM MR BALFOUR.

UNIONIST LEADER CONFIDENT OF SUCCESS.

Mr Ralfour, in alettcT to Mr JoyneonHioks, predicts that he will win. Bβ says tho fact that the President of the Board of Trade should find his own powers insufficient to defend his scat and that, the new Chancellor of tho Exchequer is driven to com© to his assistance, is an lujwilling tribute to Mr Joynson-Hicks's eloquence and the party's enthusiasm which any candidate might envy. , The more the members of the Government explain their use of political power the less likely they will be to retain it. Commenting onthe attitude of Free Traders, he says that such divisions are wasting maladies in great organisations. Tho evil they are doing will b& increased by any attempt to disguise the vast majority of the party's resolve to dfeal, with the fiscal question. "My hopes of complete unity among Unionists are based upon the growing conviction that they will all ultimately see our fiscal system broken down at every standpoint, including that of Peel and! Gladstone. Then aKcmativo proposals will have a fair Ihearing from the small section of Unionists who still dread change." Though these may meanwhile stand aloof, he is confident that Hicks will begin by restoring to Unionists principles tho great community which once was, and again will be, a strength of glory to the Unionist cause.