VETO NOT FIRST.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 748, 22 February 1910, Page 5

VETO NOT FIRST.

A NEW CLAIMANT TO PRIORITY. TEANSVAAL LOAN BENEWAL. . ' ■'■: . (Eec. February 22, 0.5 am..) Dy Telecraph-Preaa Assoctation-CoDrrlßht :■.-• ..London, February. 21. The 'Daily Express" (Unionist) states that the Government is determined to renew the Transvaal war loan of .£21,839,003, due on April 5. '■' This will necessitate legislation taking precedence of the measure dealing, with the House of Lords' .veto.-' ■'' ■'■• ■.-■■'.';■ ■ '.-.".; ; ''; ' '"■ ;SOME MINISTERIAL POSTS. ' 'MINOE' APPOINTMENTS. . (Eec. -February .21,' 9.30 p.m.) ~' :■".':_ . London, February 21. ' Mr. W. Wedgwood Benn (M.P. for the London constituency of St. Georgo's-in-tho East, and: son of the : - leader, Sir. J: W, Benn) and ■ ; Mr. Ernest' J.' Soares (M.P. for Barnstaplo' division .of. Devonshire) have been appointed,' Junior Lords'/of, the .Treasury, Both' appointments . were ■ necessitated ;by ■ the • elections (which eliminated, among. others, the. Chief Liberal! Whip, Mr. J. ■. A.,' Pease, formerly 'Patronage Secretary to., the Treasury, and' now';in;the Cabinet as Chancellor of.the' Duchy of Lancaster). Mr.E.S. Montagu, M.P. for Chesterton division*of Cambridgeshire,! will become Parliamentary.; Under-Secretary for India, in .place, of., the. Master of '; Elibank, who., succeeds Mr. Pease'-as Chief Liberal Whip.:/;.. X.'-'. : '^-.C' '■. . ' 'Captain ...Cecil;"Win.. Norton, MJP. for. Newington ;West, : T7.ho; was appointed a' 'Junior Lord of the "'■ Treasury by the.exPrime .Minister, 'becomes .'Assistant-' Post-: master-Genoral, ; a.nevr post created..by an Aot of last.year.: 1 . ,",;,- ; ■';•:;.-.;. ■•■•..■-. . THE '■SAFEGUARDS" SPEECH. , ME. ASQTJITH AT THE'ALBEET -,' ■■.--{■:: V , ;'■■■■■ .j;'-KALIi.:V ! ■'. , : -C:< ' -What has passed between his Majesty the King' and the Prime Minister,' and. what the. latter, meant, by Ms , reference to "safeguards" in his Albert Hall speech','is perhaps the question ~ of the hour.' If the'Houso- of Lords rejects tho' veto ■ limitations Bill,.: what ..then? Will the Prime , Minister be ablp to rely on any support from' the Crown;' and,, if so, \what degree of support? -Will another ..election .be necessary? Most .people "'aj. 'Homo-, -at -'■' 'present seem to be; groping. , in: the ■■"dark.: , ;:as; far. as these "-questions;aro concerned;. The portion-of'tho. Primo,Minister's Al-! Bert Hall speech which is so much quoted is reported.by "The ; Times", as follows:, ; Rebuffs and Humiliations. \ , 'I' tell", you J quito : . plainly,. : and- I, tell my ■ fellow-countrymen outside, that neither I nor, : .any other Liberal Minister, supported:\by . a;. majority.'. of the House. of Commons are: going to submit again: to the: rebuffs and\the. humiliations of the last four years. ■ (Loud cheers, again and .again, renewed.) We 'shall hot assumo office, and we shall not. hold office, unless wn can secure the 'safeguards whichexperience shows to bo necessary for the legislative 'utility'■'■■ and honour: of th< party,, ! 6ftprogress; '"(Cheers.) i Y'ou 'will Deltoid, ■ and' : you -have : been: told, it already; that the-issue lies between government 1 by, two. Chambers:, and [government:, by a single Chamber.. It .is'not tho case.-; f myself and; I believe a large, majority.; of .the' Liberal party are ;in favour of what is called 'the'bi-cameral system'. \-V. see nothing/inconsistent with: democratic-principle :;or practice in a Serond Chamber.as such;. On the.con-, .trary,. I. see .much' practical advantage that might, result from the. existence, .side by: side;with- the.'Hpuse of Conismonsy'.of:' a'bodyi not, .'indeed, .'of' coordinato. authority; (cheers),' but suitable .in' its; numbers.-and .by (ita, composition to biercise;impartially in (regard; to ( ;pur ordinary,, legislation. ..tho' .powers' of •'jrevisioh,.; iamendmpnti /fuller ' deliberationj arid, 1 , subject to proper safeguards, of delay. '(Cheers.) Thoso:are both useful" and dignified, functions. ;; . Yes, but we, havo got to deal with a pressing and an immediate!.necessity^.;(Cheers.) ; It may: well he-that:.a- process of,.evolution' or' substitution may. in course of timo 'give us "a , .'body. , : better 'fitted- than the, House of Lords: for the ; j udicial' exercise of : tho functions which ;are. really, appropriate to., a. Second .'Chamber: in a.v.democratio State.. But, .as a : great .man' once : said,. 'Things are what they :are," and we have' to. faco them; as they are. (Cheers.)' : ■"■

.■■■. ..;A Statute . ; : : ; Our. present condition • gives us all' the drawbacks, .with :few, ; if any, ■of the ■advantages,:; of ,a Second 'Chamber. - For. ■what is; our'actual' Second 'Chamber?' '(Laughter:).- It is a' , body .which has.no pretensions; or. :qualifications to : be;;: the organ or; the'interpreter of the ; popular will, v (Cheers.)- lit' is a body.on.which one partyjn"the State is in possession of a permanent: and overwhelming majority. It is a body which, as experience has shown, is in temper 'and action, nakedly 'partisan. It ;isia- body which does'not attempt to exeroiso ■ any: kind of offeotive control over the. legislation of the. other' House .when its own" party is in. a majority.,there. .It is a body -which,',.when' the conditions are reversed, however clear and emphatio tho verdict of the-country: has been, sets ■ itself, to -mutilate and to destroy, :.democratio legislation, and eyen in these latter. days it lays a usurping hand on democratic finance. (Hear; hear.) That is a plain,' literal; unvarnished picture of what.eyery one knows to/bo'.the fact. .. (Cheers.) ...We are going to ask the country to'give us authority to apply an effective.; remedy-. to - these intolerable, conditions...' (Cheers!).- Here again, what is Ip 1 be done' will have, to be done by Act of .;Parliament; the time for. unwritten convention has," unhappily, gone by. AVe arenot, as I-have said proposing cuiiuljoiiciou ot'-tho.Houso of: Lords or setting up a- 1 single Chamber but. we are, going ,po ask: the electors that the.House' of Lords shall be cbniined to the. proper, functions of ■a' Second Chamber which I onumerated a few minutes ago. Tho .absolute veto it at present possesses must go. (Loud /sheers).;,Thepower, that it clauns from time to time of .in, effect compelling its to choose between a dissolution, and, as far as our.maiu objects are concerned, legislative; sterility—that, power must go also. . (Loud cheers.) The people in future when they : elect. a hew ■ Houso: of Commons must be: able to feel what they cannot, feel .now,,;that they, aro sending to Ayestminster men' who ' mil have . the power,not.merely.of proposing and debating;but of making.laws. . (Cheers.) The. will'.of the people as . deliberately expressed, -by!■'their elected ■ representatives must,• within the'limits of the.:lifetime of-a single Parliament, be made effective. ■ :'" Shorter Parliaments. ! - Finally, these changes in the wlations between the two Houses—of ocurse', Idp not at this moment commit myself .or commit you to precise 'details .of ;.;inachinery or method—thes« changes must be accompanied and supplemented ! by : a shortening, in duration of the'life of the House of Commons itself. ;.No oiie.- de-sires-Tcertainly u6; : Liberal ; desires—to make possible the aicende'noy, even for a brief span of years, of a body which has ceased to represent tho nation. Shorten the life of' a Parliament to fivo : years— (cheers)—l should not myself be afraid of making it four—and you'will have dncod that possible risk to vanishing point. '.■-■■ .