ermanent unity of the
British Empire will not be secured through a system of
preferential duties based upon the protective taxation of
food.'" (Mr. Soares)

The vote of censure was rejected, and the Amendment carried
by 404 to 111.

A vote of censure is a very serious thing. When it is moved with great
formality on behalf of the official Opposition, it is intended always
to raise a plain and decisive issue. I must, however, observe that of
all the votes of censure which have been proposed in recent times in
this House, the one we are now discussing is surely the most curious.
The last Government was broken up three years ago on this very
question of Imperial preference. After the Government had been broken
up, a continuous debate proceeded in the country for two years and a
half, and it was terminated by the general election. This Parliament
is the result of that election, and there is not a single gentleman on
this Ministerial Bench who is not pledged, in the most specific terms,
not to grant a preferential tariff to the Colonies. Now, because we
have kept that promise, because we are opposed to preferential
tariffs, because we have declined to grant preferential tariffs, and
because we have done what all along we declared we were going to do,
and were returned to do, we are made the object of this vote of
censure.

It may be said, "We do not blame you for keeping your promise, but for
making the pledge." But what did the Leader of the Opposition promise?
He promised most emphatically before the election that if he were in
power as Prime Minister when this Colonial Conference took place, he
would not grant preference to the Colonies. On many occasions the
right hon. gentleman said that not one, but two elections would be
necessary before he would be entitled to take that tremendous step. I
have the right hon. gentleman's words here. Speaking at Manchester in
January 1905, the right hon. gentleman said: "If that scheme were
carried out, I do not see that we could be called on to decide the
colonial aspect of this question until not only one, but two elections
have passed." Yet the right hon. gentleman is prepared, I presume, to
join in a vote of censure on his Majesty's Government for not granting
that preference which he himself was prohibited from granting by the
most precise and particular engagement.

Is it a vote of censure on the Government at all? Is it not really a
vote of censu