Mr. Asquith played a very distinguished and honourable part in
the debate. He responded to Mr. Chamberlain's appeal in exactly the right spirit, and deprecated the- perverse raising of contention between Lancashire and India. No sectional interest in the United Kingdom, he said, should ever be- arrayed against any sectional interest in the Dominions cr Dependencies. The fiscal policy of India would have to be determined on very much broader considerations. Personally he regretted that this old question of the Cotton Duties had been raised now, but his opinion on a matter of inopportuneness did not imply support of the Lanca- shire amendment. He proposed that the Government should add to their resolution words snaking it clear that the new duties would come up for review under a large Imperial scheme at the end of the war.
Previous page
