TWO YEARS' WORK.

A SPEECH

DELIVERED BY

THE RIGHT HON.

H. H. ASQUITH, K.C., M.P.

(CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER),

AT

HARTHAM PARK, WILTS.,

On AUGUST 24th, 1907.

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and the Liberal Central Association),

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MR. ASQUITH (speaking at Hartham Park, Wilts., on August 24th) said that those of them who came from the House of Commons, and he was glad to see several of his honourable colleagues upon the platform, were, as they hoped and believed, on the eve of a release from long and protracted labours-labours which had extended with a very short interval for something like ten months, and which he should presently show them had not been unfruitful in result. It was a peculiar gratification to him as an outsider to be able to come there and testify in the face of his constituency how Sir John Dickson-Poynder, in times which tried a man's mettle, under conditions which could be only faced by a man of strong conviction and unfaltering purpose, at the cost of many old ties and associations, with rare ability and tenacity, had maintained there, in that part of Wiltshire, the cause of progress, and upheld the standard of Free Trade.

Two "Conspicuously and Exceptionally Fruitful" Years. He (Mr. Asquith) ought, he knew from what he read in the newspapers, to appear before them as the representative of the most discredited Government of modern times. If he or any other of his colleagues had the temerity at that moment to appear on a public platform they ought to come before their fellow countrymen clad in the white sheet of penance, with words of apology upon their lips, and holding in their hands the lighted candle of remorse. But somehow, if he might judge from their appearance and demeanour, that was not the attitude they expected him to assume, and certainly it was not the attitude he felt any temptation to adopt. For he was going to be bold enough to submit to them, and submit it with chapter and verse, this audacious proposal-that the two years not yet wholly expired since the present House of Commons and the present Government came into power had been years conspicuously and exceptionally fruitful, both in the sphere of legislation and administration, in large and beneficent reforms. He was not going to take advantage of comparison-it would be taking an unfair advantage-with the barren and dreary epoch which immediately preceded the Liberal advent to power, an epoch, as they might remember, of unsettled convictions, of divided counsels, of administrative impotence and legislative reaction, during which the late Government blindly stumbled along the path of Parliamentary humiliation to the goal of electoral disaster. The years 1902 to 1905 occupied, and were likely long to occupy, a unique place in the annals of political stagnation and sterility. No, when they claimed for the present Parliament, and in its measure, for the Government, so far as its life had lasted, exceptional fruitfulness, they were making a comparison not with this sorry spectacle -the long protracted liquidation of an insolvent concern-but with Parliaments where the majority had been, as this one was, earnest and united in convictions, and where they had in power a Govern

ment determined to the utmost of its ability to give effect to the declared purpose and wishes of the people.

Foreign Affairs and the Indian Office.

Let them survey the field of what had been actually accomplished. There were two departments in their public affairs which were, happily, outside the normal range of party controversy, he meant foreign relations and the government of India, as to which he would only say this. Although they had passed through anxious times, yet never in their experience, as he believed, by general acknowledgment not only of the people of the country, but of the Empire as a whole-never had these departments been in wiser or more capable or more trustworthy hands. He observed in some quarters signs of something like impatience on the part of enthusiastic critics of the protracted deliberations, and what they regarded as the slow progress of the Conference at The Hague. He would ask such people to suspend their judgment, for the procedure of a body like that, in which so many States were represented, must always be cumbrous. He asked them to suspend their judgment until the final issue was disclosed, and, when that disclosure was made-unless he was very much mistaken-it would be found that a substantial advance had been made-an advance in the achievement of which the British delegation had played a conspicuous and honourable part-towards the great ends which they all in common had in view, viz., first, the reduction of expenditure upon armaments; next, the humanising of the methods of warfare; and lastly, but most important of all, making provision, if it could be made, of new safeguards at once honourable and practicable, against the waste of treasure and improvident spilling of human blood.

Liberals and the Colonies.

He passed to another department of administration which they all professed to think they should like to see relegated to the same pacific zone, but which unfortunately, during the last few years, had been the field of the fiercest controversy-the field of colonial administration. Their opponents, for years past, had treated it as one of the axiomatic facts in politics that they, and only they, were fit and trustworthy custodians of the fortunes of the Empire. But if there was one thing by which, speaking as a member of the Government, he should wish the Government to be judged-if there was one thing which, if they were to be compelled to leave office tomorrow, would, in his opinion, justify the confidence which the nation had for two years reposed in them, he would point to what they had done in South Africa. They had given self-government to two dominions, the majority of the people of which were, less than six years ago, fighting us in the field. As Sir Wilfrid Laurier said, when he was here a couple of months ago, there was nothing like it in history, and there was no Power which could have done it but Great Britain. Yes, and Great Britain would not and could not have done it if it had not had a Liberal Government. What had become of that half-way house between freedom and dependence which went by the name of the Lyttelton Constitution, which the late Government were prepared to offer? Did anyone defend it outside the circle of its authors? They had a remarkable answer

to the question only last week, when they read the resolution unanimously passed by the Transvaal Legislative Assembly thanking the King, in unmeasured terms, for the granting of complete autonomy. Yet the members of the late Government, who were never tired of claiming a monopoly of patriotism and Imperial sentiment, lost no opportunity, in the House of Commons and elsewhere, of pursuing every act of the new Transvaal Government with suspicion and unfriendly criticism. In his judgment, and he believed the judg ment of the great bulk of the people of this country, General Botha and the Legislative Assembly had shown rare statesmanship and self-restraint, a resolute determination to rise above a sectional standard of administration, and determined loyalty to their new Constitution and the British crown.

Chinese Labour.

He would say one word and one word only as to a matter by which during the last four years all those problems had been complicated the question of Chinese labour. He had to say, on behalf of his Majesty's Government, that they adhered in letter and in spirit to every declaration they had ever made that they saw nothing to repent of or to retract. They believed, as they had always believed, that it was in the best interests of South Africa and the Empire that this unhappy experiment should be brought, at the earliest practicable moment, to an end. They were glad to know, and not at all surprised to know, that the Government and the people of the Transvaal agreed with them; and that they were ready to take, and were taking, effectual steps to bring about the disappearance of a system which was as repugnant to the sentiments of the majority of our new fellow-citizens as it was to the people of Great Britain, and as they had long known it to be, to the great self-governing communities of the British Empire.

The Colonial Conference.

He could not pass from colonial administration without a reference to the recent Colonial Conference. Among the many other good results of that Conference, he thought first among them was this their colonial friends went away understanding the real view of the people of this country in regard to what was called Colonial Preference," and left Great Britain in no doubt of what was their own. What were these views? They all accepted one common principle, and a most important principle it was, viz., that the fiscal system of each part of the Empire of the self-governing parts of the Empire, at any rate-must be primarily determined by what a majority of its own inhabitants consider to be its own economic and social interests. Two important consequences follow from that principle; first, that the United Kingdom could not adopt any form of Colonial Preference which involved the taxation of corn and meat, and of the raw materials of their industry? Why? Because the free influx of these things into their open market was not only a necessity of their commercial supremacy, but of their national life. What was the second consequence ? That the colonists, for their part, could not give to Great Britain any form of Imperial Preference which would admit British manufacturers on level terms into competition with their own protected industries. That was the

principle upon which the best of the colonial tariffs, the Canadian, was framed. It was a principle on which the new Australian tariff was still more conspicuously framed. At the Conference they all stated their views with perfect frankness, and parted excellent friends.

A Policy of Subterfuge and Evasion.

it was

He wished the Unionist Party, to call it by that namequite time it got a new alias-would show equal frankness with the people of the country. What did they see? At every by-election that took place, the official candidate of the party was a so-called Tariff Reformer; he was a person prepared to put import duties upon corn and other necessaries of life. "But where" (Mr. Asquith asked) "is the leader of the party? What is his attitude? I have asked him the question outside the House of Commons and inside. I repeat the question to him and to those responsible for the guidance and programme of their party. Will they tell us, the people of the country, are they prepared to tax corn, meat, wool, the necessaries of life and industry, in order to carry out this so-called policy of Colonial Preference? Until we get a fair and square answer to that plain and direct question they cannot escape the reproach of continuing the policy of subterfuge and evasion which lost them the confidence of the country."

National Indebtedness.

One of the main charges they made against the late Government when in Opposition was that they were thriftless stewards of the fortunes of the people, extravagant in expenditure, borrowing and drawing bills on the future when they ought to have paid their way out of the current revenue of the year. Liberals pledged themselves that if the people of the country put them in their place they would, as soon as they could, bring that state of things to an end. After two years in power, he would say what he had done. Taking first the debt of the nation, on March 31st, 1906, the end of the financial year, the Liberals had been in office only two or three months, and the total debt of the nation -and he was including not only the National Debt properly and technically so-called, but all capital liabilities incurred by borrowing in respect particularly of the Army Army and Navy--was £788,900,000. What would it be on 31st March, 1908, exactly two years afterwards? If they were able, as he thought they should be able, to carry out their programme and realise their estimates, it would be reduced to £765,700,000. In other words, in the course of two years they should have reduced the indebtedness of the nation by £23,200,000.

National Taxation.

What of taxation? During the time he had been Chancellor of the Exchequer he had repealed the export duty upon coal, and reduced the import duty on tea by id. And he had this year, by the distinction which had been established between earned and unearned incomes-a just and necessary distinction, if they were to make the income-tax a permanent source of revenue-incurred a loss estimated at £1,500,000. The total remission of taxation for which he was responsible was £4,750,000. On the other hand