A FREETRADE APPEAL.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8169, 27 June 1906, Page 5

A FREETRADE APPEAL.

ADDRESS TO THE COMMONWEALTH ELECTORS. Reoeivd June 26, 7.35 a.m. LONDON, Jane 24. Two hundred and seventy-four members belonging to the majority iti the House of Commons, but not members of the Government or prominent Labour members, have signed an appeal iseued by the Cobden Club, and addressed to the Commonwealth electors. The address deolares that the British electorates condemned by the most decisive majority on record the polioy of Preference, whioh is by far the most important ever submitted. "The decision," says the appeal, "was due not to any lack of goodwill towards you. We are proud of a connection which is free and unpurchased, and which rests on common blood, traditions, and aspirations. The rejection was due to the fact that it would make food dearer aod scarcer. You export your abundanoe, f»nd we must import the bulk of all what we oonsume. We were asked to submit to a tax upon this and give you preference on so much as you send as. No won ler the electors bbjebt to suoh a proposal, emanating not from you, but from certain politicians here. No offer within your power could compensate for a tax on food. "We ask you, not for your sake, for we do not desire to, oritioise or interfere with your fiscal system, but we ask you for the sake of the workers, for the sake of the goodwill between you and us, p-hioh we nope will constantly beoome stronger and more binding, not to encourage from your side those amongst us proposing a tax on food." COMMENTS ON THE ADDRESS. Reoeived June 26, 8.34 a.m. LONDON, June 25.

The Times, commenting on the address, says:—"The colonials ore not likely to be misled by the address. They are aware that their products under preference are free, while only extra Imperial products are taxed, fiat the egregious appeal i@ likely to have one effect. If its example should cause the colonials to relinquish their scrupulous abstention, from any such appeal to ourselves it is sure that their argument in' that oase will be more oouvinoiDg and fruitful than this address." i The Tribune characterises it as I "an unusual step, taken solely in the interests of the oontinu°d good feeling and a better understanding of the different standpoints." The effect, adds the Tribune, ought to be wholly good. The Pall Mall Gazette says:—"The Radicals are not [satisfied with their interference in South African affairs, bat are preparing to educate Australia. The Cobden Club's appeal is an impertinent intrusion."