BRITISH POLITICS

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 19462, 8 November 1928, Page 3

BRITISH POLITICS

■ ■■ -——♦—, /■ THE COMING ELECTIONS;: MR BALDWIN'S POLICY. I " (fbom our own LONDON, October 5. The Prime Minister (Mr Baldwin) had an audience of 3000 people when he made his policy speech at Yarmouth. "I have been in politics.; for 40 years." he said. "I. have never known a party.. in better spirits ot in finei: fighting fettle. They have confidence," in themselves and confidence in nextyear, and they have ample justification for it —justification from two sides. They remember the victory oi four years ago. They know that 412 Unionist members-were returned.' They "know all about the swing of the pendulum, the unpopularity, of the Go* vernment, and the. attack made on it, but we have still 406 members, ; We have lost six seatsi in four years-rone and a half a year—and ; if mathematics be true it will take 140 years : to re-move-us." Mr Baldwin first devoted his attention to the other two parties. With regard to the Labour Party; he said: "During the last four years in ParPi ament their Parliamentary record is a record of lack of the, discipline without which no party can succeed, a record of weakness, of. absence of and time after time they have subordinated broad and national considerations to the narrow interests of a certain class. "We have seen that at the tSme of the general strike We saw it during the whole.of the coal stoppage. During both of these times their leaders, who disapproved of much of what was done, of the policy of many of 1 those who were leading in those troublous times, never by word during those, dreary months had the courage to say in publio what they felt and knew in private. We saw it at the time of the outbreak of trouble in China, when Mr George Hicks and Mr Wheatley regretted the flaunting of a military display in China and said, 'What.did it matter V because they were not bricklayers who were going to be killed They have claimed to have a monopoly in representing the interests of the working classes. A more impudent claim was never made. (Cheers.) If we had failed to represent those interests not one of us would be on this platform. "While the Labour Party are properly trying to purge their ranks of Communism and to become purely a constitutional Party, you have Mr Maxtoh's manifesto, approved by the National Council of the Independent Labour Party. Now 112 members out of the 158 Labour members in Parliament belong to the Independent Labour Party. That shows you how much unity has at present been achieved, and while they talk of driving out the Communists, Mr William Adamson, one of the most respected members of the Labour Party, who has given a life's service to the miners in Scotland, has been thrown out of office in his own union by the Communists. When these little differences are adjusted it will be time to tell the people of England that the Labour Party is purged of Communism." The Tariff Question. After dealing with the "Party in the breaking"—the Liberals—the Prime Minister went on to speak of the Conservative record. He dealt with the foreign policy and -peace abroad, with pensions and ' housing, progress in education, the Electricity Act, and the migration of miners;- On

•the all-important -policy of Safeguarding of Industries ho said: . "There - have . been since the wax; -a meetings'' of economists 'fronv'the dif- , ferent countries at'.Geneva doing-what • they can|:to reduce the, countries of Europe" to remove Or, fat" any :'fatej to ' "reduce,": the-barriers wWc;h interfere vyith trade between one:-country and' another in"; the" shape of tariffs./: : .T am.' ; - all in"favour of these meetings. 1' r wouldvlike.to see all the barriers down, but in the meantime when the barriers ' exist fa other place*,, when employ- ' ment is affected at Home by longer' -' hours, by cheaper labour,-by-questions ',,' of currency, what is the Liberal; Party % going to- do to meet these cases, and ' what is the Labour: Party going to do? , The-Liberal; Party,say,they will do no- t thing, so we .know" exj&ctly.:*where ■■. we ''> stand. • They are going' to take-away exjjsting' safeguarding. • The,,. Labour .i Party/officially say jbfiey' will, do nothing. There is much uneasiness in •-: the rank and -file. • Voices have been heard, saying 'License ■; importsWfar ..; more drastic than safeguarding,, and . more dangerous in many ways. I see : 'one Lab'pur member in South Wales is advocating safeg'uardlng-t(hear hear)—and he says whatever -.Pjirty comeS h into 'power will safeguards • vV "Safeguarding Vwasi.: introduced by i the' Coalition Government, and it has \ been the law of the laind for seven years' I think we all agree that the' • experimental stage' is passing away.. There are few in. this , country' who -.- would contehd that success has: not • been achieved.by such experiments in - safeguarding as have hitherto been -: made, and I know there .have been many members of our Party who' feel that progress has been too slow. Let me"remind- you of this; It iB not-wise < in: a .democracy to go too. far • in front of. public opinion. .Tie British people, are slow to make up their minds on a new question, but thev are thinking, and thinking hard. This question of;safeguarding is an industrial question, • a question which should be judged-on its merits, and on its merits alone, and I put my own position as your leader and the position of my'colleagues as the Government very clearly in a letter to'the Chief Whip just before the recess. „ No Food> Tax. \ ' "We are agreed that there will be no tax. on food. I repeat the pledge which I have given that safeguarding will, not be used as a side-door or backdoor by which to introduce a general tariff until the question of a general tariff has been submitted to the country—a purely democratic proceeding—and in view of our record, in view of our treatment of this question, ' the country will trust us and take our word. I say. this, that no industry will be barred from taking its case and proving it, if it can, before the appropriate tribunal. I would add one thing; if we are returned to power we jhave no doubt, the procedure needs simplifying and shortening. The too protracted enquiries are bad for business. I remember Sir Alfred Mond, as he then was, when he was an apostle of free trade, once said business could flourish with tariffs y business could flourish without tariffs; but business could not flourish ,with ! uncertainty."