OUTCOME OF FREE TRADE.

Colonist, Volume LI, Issue 12500, 29 March 1909, Page 1

OUTCOME OF FREE TRADE.

In the "Nineteenth Century" appears a particularly vigorous article by Mr W. Frewen Lord, under the title of "The Lost Empire of England," in which he arraigns .and convicts free trade of being responsible for the ■ social and economic evils under which Great Britain is. now suffeiing so severely. Its authors, he says, "began by ruining the land of England in the name of cheap, food. Then the manufacturer began to fail. They approved of this, saying we could get cheaper foods abroad. Finally, as. a result of attacking both land and manufactures, we find our sons and daughters starving in the streets. The gospel of cheapness has brought us to the verge of ruin. Naturally, for we arc not a cheap jace:" As regards the maintenance of the solidarity of the Empire, Mr Lords points out that it is inseparably associated with 'the question, not only of a tariff, but with that of a preferential tariff; because "upon the arrangement of such a tariff with the self-governing colonies, plus the demonstration of our ability to sustain in war the interests of the Empire, depends absolutely the pre-emi-nence of our connection with the autonomous daughter States of Britain." As it is, the Imperial Government, he asserts, is pursuing a policy which is" playing into the hands of Germany, and will enable her when the opportune moment arrives to execute that conquest of Eiigland which she asserts to be an historical necessity, as well as to achieve that object with comparative ease. "We shall build and build against you," is the language held "by serious -and reflective Germans in conversation with Mr Lord "until the burden is too heavy to bear, and then you will have to take our orders."