"Dumping Armada"

Five o'clock struck. All round Britain the doors of His Majesty's Customs Houses rumbled shut last week. British Free Trade was at an end as the recently enacted tariff bill went into effect. All week long the Channel was black with ships, the "Dumping Armada." British papers called it, rushing to Britain with goods from all over the world. God seemed to be on the side of the tariff. Heavy gales kept hundreds of lumbering freighters at sea. When 5 o'clock sounded from Big Ben at least 50 ships of the "Dumping Armada" were still steaming up the Thames. Last under the wire was a Finnish sea captain who rushed into the Customs House perspiring and in carpet slippers, unaware that his owners had already reported his ship docked. The losing ships had to pay 10% duty on their cargoes next day, but the loss went to British insurance firms. Canny owners had paid big premiums to insure their ships against just such an eventuality.

Last salute to Free Trade came at midnight in the House of Lords from acid Little Lord Snowden.

"Free Trade is not dead!" he shouted, thumping his rubber tipped canes on the floor. "The tariff bill is unjustified by fact and experience. Its definite purpose is to restrict international trade. ... It wil increase the cost of living and lead to wage wars. It will impose heavy new burdens on the poor and it is useless as a bargaining weapon."

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