EMPIRE AND TARIFF REFORM.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1747, 30 August 1905, Page 67

EMPIRE AND TARIFF REFORM.

MR CHAMBERLAIN AT THE ALBERT HALL.

TWO YEARS’ PROGRESS.

(From Our Special Correspondent.) LONDON, July 8. f Two years of crusading in the cause of tariff reform culminated last night in a monster meeting at the Albert Hall. It was the second annual meeting of the Tariff Reform League, and Mr Chamberlain made the occasion memorable by a speech as brilliant as it was effective. The great “crusader” celebrates his sixty-ninth birthday today, but the passing years are still kept successfully at bay by the commanding intellect and splendid vitality of the man. The remarkable demonstration at the Albert Hall was, first, last, and all the time, a tribute j to the personality of Air Chamberlain. He dominated that vast audience—close upon ten thousand people—as only the great leader of a great cause cou:d do. Seldom, in the course of this campaign has he been in better fightj ing tan and his speech was a “slashj ing” vindication of his policy at the exI pense of his adversaries. “We have kindled a torch,” he said, “which not all the puny efforts of our opponents can extinguish; we have raised an issue of not ordinary importance; and when I ldbk round upon this vast assembly, when I think that it is representative of every interest, of every class, and of every district in the country, I find it difficult to believe that we are here to perform the obsequies of a dying cause.” Certainly there was nothing moribund about the confidence with which he urged his Imperial policy, nothing moribund about the enthusiasm to which he aroused the great assemblage at the Albert Hall. j Mr Chamberlain’s points were made i as incisively as ever. “We asked that I there should be impartial inquiry,” he ! said, “and our demand was scorned. We asked for discussion, and it was , promptly refused by those who have been discussing the question ever since.” He reminded the working class of this country that his object included the greatest social problem of our time —the full employment of the people. He defended, the ability of the British workman. It was a question of fair play. “Give us a trial,” he said, “and 1 venture to think our working men and our manufacturers will hold their own against fair competition.” As for the second great object of his policy, the organisation of the great self-governing States or tlie* Empire, Air Chamberlain sounded once more the note of warning against irxiif-

ference and neglect. Empire cannot remain “a thing lor resounding platitude® and after-dinner oratory.” Unless the Motherland and her colonies are drawn closer together by bonds of mutual interest, the tendency must inevitably be to drift apart. “I have never admitted that England is a decadent Power,” said Mr Chamberlain; “on the other hand, no one can denv that these great free communities whom we have assisted through the time of infancy, who are now ran idly rising into manhood, have possibilities in the future which even we cannot hope to emulate. Now, now is the time. Now, when they are willing, let us lay deep and strong the foundations for a greater Empire than the world has ever seen.” 1 It is something, as the speaker said, to have cleared the ground in the two years just concluded. The pioneers have done admirable work in defining the issues of the contest, and progress will be the easier for the great amount of spade-work already accomplished. Inquiry has been the first step ; but the reformers’ policy does not end with, the asking of questions. They intend to carry inquiry into action, “We are a fighting force” says their leader. “We have a definite and constructive policy.”

The success of that policy, it is nowevident. depends upon the Unionist Party, and the question in the minds of all men is, “Will the Prime Minister support the Chamberlain proposals when the present Parliament has run its close ?” To this day no man knows. Thanks to the amazing elusiveness of Air Balfour, it is impossible to pin him down to a definite personal acceptance or rejection of the tariff reformers’, scheme. Mr Chamberlain is in doubt, like the rest of us, upon this point. The most he could do last evening was to express th© hope, based on the Prime Minister’s nublic utterances, that when the great trial of strength came the Unionist Party would find' its leaders shoulder to shoulder.