At Swansea, on Tuesday, Mr. Baldwin developed a little further
the policy which he had outlined at Plymouth, but as regards Protection he did not go into details, and thus he disappointed many expectations. He regarded all details as a matter for further inquiry, though we should certainly have liked to know at the outset how it is possible to give any substantial prefer- ences to the Dominions—which send us mainly food— without taxing foreign food-stuffs. Yet Mr. Baldwin had said already that he hopes to introduce a satisfactory scheme of Protection without direct taxes on food. The spirit in which Mr. Baldwin spoke was, as usual, admirable. He showed, again, how acutely he felt the disaster and tragedy of unemployment, and he declared that he was ready when the time came to take his political life in his hands and to stand or fall by his solution of the problem. We may say here in parenthesis that he -will probably find encouragement in the results of the by-elections at Yeovil and Rutland, where the Con- servative seats have been retained.
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