London, March. 1, With the passage of the Imports Bill in the House of Lords by 129] votes to 12 and its translation into law with the Royal Assent, the eral of Free Trade in Britain came to an end at midnight last night.
In the debate in the House' of Lords, the ex-Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lord Snowden, expressed his opposition to the Bill in vigorous terms.
'There was mo evidence, he declared, that 'Britain. had a' permanent adverse balance of trade." The Im-
Patent fallacies, a he 1 fateful step of passing. the Bill, he urged, should not be taken unlgis "we are convinced that our] Free Trade policy no longer serves our best interests, and that tari better calculated to serve them."
Lord Snowden then proceeded to Justify Pree Trade by claiming that sive have been able to maintain ovr a surprisingly high level ie the Protectionist countries been growing poorer and vein conch Lord Snowden lis Government colleagues] of by declaring with bitter emphasis} that it was criminal to gamble with} the vital interests of the country adopting a new tariff policy, while staring them in the face were facts that, pointed to the disastro failure of that same policy elscwhere.—Reuter,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.