My first objection to this policy is to the methods

Launched q( proceeding. I say that it ought not to have been

Squiry. launched in the way it has been launched. That in

itself is a great disparageiment of its authority. It should
have been launched after careful and independent inquiry, after long
•conference with the Colonies, and with a definite and concerted plan.
In this particular instance, in this particular policy, every one of those
elements is wanting. It was launched in a speech quite suddenly,
without even inquiry in the Government. We now know that Mr. Ritchie
wanted to refer the whole question to an independent tribunal, preferably
a Royal Commission ; and it is some comfort to us who were urging
the same course in the House of Lords, as a means of taking this
matter out of the arena of party controversy, and who were told by the
Government that we were fools for our pains, to find that there was
another fool in the Cabinet, and not, I think, the greatest fool of the
number. Now we are told it should be non-political. I say it should
■have been non-political. If the policy was to appeal to the country, it
■should have been non-political.
