GREAT UNIONIST MEETING.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 11248, 11 April 1908, Page 5

GREAT UNIONIST MEETING.

LORD CURZON ON THE TARIFF QUESTION. HIS FIRST PAHTY SPEECH FOR TEN YEARS. • (Press Assn.— By Telegraph.— Copyright.) LONDON, April 10. Lord Curzon, presiding at a Unionist mass meeting at Basingstoke, marked a decade since he had addressed a.ny'political gathering m England. Mr ,Balfour's fiscal platform, lie said, was an© whereon all sections of the party: could well unite, and whereon ultimate reunion, besides being possible, was certain. Ho did not, envy either the .commo-nsehse-or the political foresight of a. man declaring 1 that no change of fiscal policy was ' requiredl or likely to occur. Change/of some sort was necessary ; it "was inevitable. It would: possibly not take precisely the shape the authors, of the movement anticipated, perhaps not fulfil, all the -ambitions and desires of the warmest partisans. ,He disclaimed sufficient knowledge to enable him to dogmatise* Lord Curzon, added regarding 'India, which jnigH conceivably suffer more from retaliation: than it" could gain from 'preference, thatit w«s to, our interest that lier interests should, not be sacrifice^ m any coming •change. ' Her revenue* tariff ■\vas so useful and lucrative that no' party m India would consent %& part witfeso useful a means of negotiation. ' It />liadl been used more, titan once to tlireitieiri reprisals J o.v foreign nations. The* liberal Government had events irt tVaiiy ;to disturb many things, but tlvey ha& ' not shawm any tendency to upsiet the-tiariff m India. Such a tariff •must aiid' oi%hi to come. Iv England 1 Radicals vfe>a driving us thereto m the future, a, pj«iitiom ■which Unionists must redeem. /Tire Liberal party were actiii& as'#ct iiui'^es to their offspring, Ayhcnii they-, affected. to repudiate and disoytin." "if >vfe "m>t such a ta.rifjf for revenue purpi>ses,"''nio said, "l caAndti for tli^; life 'of m© -I^6 why not a tariff,' after, confiulttijLioiij.Snth the colonial Goveniments, foi;;strefigtliening the ties of Imperial : cohnectidn ? also to utilise it to improve tradia'andi sedure better employment^ for : workeißi ( Tlie moiiey question," ,he ; said, "was 1 probed more by those sections, of tlie;: .party wliich at present supported tariff reform, but tliey \ were- mutually iseparatej and would -not be drawn tcgetlier. ■•■' Wliat«!y"er we <lo," he said, < -'let lus> riot adopt - 6-: scription. We are uiiabie Aoaffwd 't» esti-a^ge sucl*- men a,* !,Lbrd; Sa|h'BbuiY,'S ( twx> sons* ','Tliat M r ould ! bo unthinkabliß. ' Our policy should be'pne^of'-',recdricilia-tion, aiot of reprisals;":