Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-11-19
ROSEBERY TO THE FORE
Former Premier Defends Lib
erals and Their Policies.

Special Cablegram to The Star.
LONDON, November 1s.--Lord Rosebery,
at time the greatest political power IN
the united kingdom-in recent years not SO
great a force because of the feeling among
all parties that "he plays the game too
fine''--has come to the front in connection
with the approaching general election by
reason of an address just made at Edin-
burgh. A meeting was held under the
joint auspices of the East of Scotland Lib
eral League and the Scottish Liberal Assoc
citation. Mr.. Aisquith, Mr.. Haldan, Lord
Dalmony and others made addresses. Dut
the principal speaker was Lord RoSebery,
who presided. Lord Rosebery's speech was
notable for a very friendly reference to Sir
Henry Campbeil-Bannerman, showing, as 1t
did, that the Liberal League and the official
party are to present united front at the
general election. Mr. Wise, a colonial min
lister of New South Wales, his lordship said,
had come 1900 miles to Edinburgh to air
the fiy-blown fallacieS of protection, and to
declare that the liberal party had no pol
icy but that of stagnation and drift, and
were wholly out of sympathy with imperial
ideas and ignorant of imperial aspirations
Il should hardly have applied the cpl
tibet stagnation to the present condition
of the liberal party" said the chairman
Il am inclined to think that when my old
friend Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman re-
turns from his well-earned holidays to take
command of the forces of the liberal party
the last epithet he will think of applying
will be that of 'stagnation-'
Liberals Prepare for Action.
why, the Welsh party have already
drawn their swords and are whetting them
on the grindstone. The English non
conformisrs have announced that they have
prepared torpedo which will blow the
next government into the air if it shows
any hesitation on the subject in which they
are most interested There were signs not
long ago for the Irish shillalah is hurting
through the air, and 1 should be very much
surprised If Sir Henry finds the labor wing
of the party stagnant.
Lord Rosebery challenged Mr.. Wise to
prove by a plebiscite in his colony that the
colonies were in enthusiastic sympathy
with the tory party.
IF such plebiscite were taken we would
know that the Australians put their hands
and their strength into the South African
war not to restore the paramount interests
of Great Britain, but to introduce into
South Africa that Chinese labor, not one
iota of which they will allow to enter into
their own precincts.
There is no reason why the liberal party
in Great Britain Should not represent lib
as well and as truly as it did the liberal
community at home. Their empire had
been built up by liberalism and only by
liberalism could it be maintained"
Colonial Makes Reply.
B. r. Wise, the Australian did not like
what Lord Rosebery said about him. In
an interview he said:
Lord Rosebery has done me the honor
to attack with some asperity speech
which | made last week at Edinburgh be-
I fore the Imperial Union.
I THE necessarily condensed report which
Lord Rosebery@ read in the Scotch pa pers
gave my remarks more extended applica-
ton than they really had. l was not speak
ing of the liberal party as q whole when
l used the word stagnation' and the word
drift to which Lord Rosebery took eX-
ception, but rather to those opponents of
imperial preference, whether conservatives
or liberals, who failed to appreciate the
bearing of tariff reform upon imperial inter-
ests. / did, it is true, also refer more par
ticularly to that little England section of
the liberal party, the members of which
1unatics,' although 1 did not myself ven
ture to describe them in such strong lam
gnage.,
IF, however, it Is a part of the liberal
creed, as most recently expounded, that a
public man of one part of the empire is
to be ruled out of bounds when he speaks
upon the affairs of another part, is it not
somewhat inconsistent of Lord Rosebery
to ask me the opinion of Australia about
the employment of Chinese in the Trans
vaal? That is purely a question for the
electors of the Transvaal; although a
member of the ministry which passed the
first Chinese exclusion act in New South
Wales l have my own opinion about it.
But, after all, what has the employment
of Chinese In the Transvaal to do with ne
question of imperial trade throughout the
empire?
Lord Rosebery suggests a plebiscite of
Australia upon the Chinese question. But
surely the quicker and more effective way
of ascertaining Australian opinion upon
this subject would be to summon that colo
NAL conference which, according to Lord
Ripon, ought not to be allowed to meet
until after the general election. Can 1t
really be that any section of the liberal
party is unwilling to let the electors of
Great Britain know the opinions of Britons
beyond the seas upon the question of pref
erence, and whether they have made or
will make offer until this knowledge is
too late to affect their votes?"