LLOYD GEORGE'S SPEECH.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XLV, Issue 11960, 11 December 1919, Page 5

LLOYD GEORGE'S SPEECH.

United Press Association—By Elec trie Telegraph—Copyright.

London, Dec, 7.

Mr Lloyd (George, speaking at the Manchester Reform Club, admitted that the Anti-Dumping Bill was retrogressive, but , said that the promoters of the Tariff Bill of 1916, or the Kunciman resolutions in Paris, which singled out one nation for hostile legislation after the war, could not condemn the Government’s attitude. He, as a Freetrader, refused to believe that the cause of Freetrade was inseparable from permitting damping, which Mr Asquith styled unfair competition. To remove damping would strengthen Freetrade. This one measure was evidently to be used to urge Liberals to abandon their pledges and further divide the nation and hamper reconstruction. They were asked to leave the combination which carried the greatest Reform lAct, the greatest land reform ever carried, and vvnich pledged Home Rule and** liberal institutions in India, “We are asked to divide the nation in the face of a vigilant enemy in order to reunite the Liberal Party on the German dumphead.” That was not going to make Liberalism a living force. The Premier paid *a tribute to the loyalty of his Unionist colleagues to their election pledges. He said that Mr Ruucimau recently advocated the co-opeiasion of the best elements of the Liberals and Labourites. The came thing applied to the best elements of the Liberals and Unionists. Ha asked Mr Asquith whether he, if in power at the end of the war, would have dismissed his Unionist colleagues who had helped to > win the war? The only alternative to a coalition was confusion. There was a new challenge to civilisation, affecting the ■whole fabric of society. It declares private enterprise a failure, which must be voted out. Those who believed in the virtues of private enterprise must remove the evils which bad provoked a challenge to national unity. This could save Britain Europe and the world. He appealed to Liberalism to participate worthily in a united effort to save the world.