Page:The life and times of King Edward VII by Whates, Harry Richard 5.djvu/25

Rh fication and recovery of South Africa. But in " the solitude of the illimitable veld " and on the voyage out and home he reflected much. He left in October, 1902, Birmingham giving him a magni- ficent send-off after listening to a speech notable for its eloquence and sincerity of thought. He returned in March, and, as we have already seen, was received by the King and Queen. On the I5th of May he -visited his constituents and made a speech which broke new ground, sug- gesting that in return for the preference of 33 per cent, which Canada had granted on her tariff to British goods, and the preference which the South African Colonies were then granting, Great Britain should alter her fiscal system. Here is the vital passage of the speech : " The Ministers of Canada, when they were over here last year, made me a further definite offer. They said, ' We have done for you as much as we can do, voluntarily and freely and without return. If you are willing to reciprocate in any way, we are prepared to reconsider our tariff with a view to seeing whether we cannot give you further reductions, especially in regard to those goods in which you come into competition with foreigners ; and we will do this if you will meet us by giving us a drawback on the small tax of is. per quarter which you have put upon corn.' Well, that was the offer, which we had to refuse. I must say that, if I could treat matters of this kind solely in regard to my position as Secretary of State for the Colonies, I should have said, ' That is a fair offer, that is a generous offer, from your point of view, and it is an offer which we might ask our people to accept.' ' Thus the movement which came to be known as " Tariff Reform " was origin- ated in England. " I do not think," said Mr. Chamberlain, " that a general election is very near ; but, near or dis-

Photo: Bio&raph. MR. CHAMBERLAIN ARRIVES AT SOUTHAMPTON FROM SOUTH AFRICA. i*