NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 976, 17 November 1910, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY.

• 4 . 0 A sensational development in th< b British political situation is report '* cd in this morning's cable nows. 1 Everybody has been expecting thai the first decisive step would bo taker by the AsGuith Government, although exactly what that step would be has of course been matter for conjecture. And now, suddenly, while all eyes have been fixed upon the head of the Government, Lore : Lansdowne, the Unionist leader in the House of Lords, has taken charge of the. situation by giving notice of . motion, inviting the Peime 1 Minister to send the Parliament Bill on to the House of Lords. The strength and skill of this move are obvious, and obvious, too, is the difficulty , that the Government will find in | refusing the invitation.- Lord : Lansdowne's motion will direct publie attention to the fact—overlooked . by many people—that Me. Asquith lias absolutely no warrant, reason, or excuse for demanding a dissolution. What has. happened since he returned with his majority in January 1 He has had nothing -rejected by the Lords. :■ He has submitted nothing to them but the famous Budget, and that the Lords passed. He still has his majority. Ho is where he was early last year. In these circumstances it is not surprising that there should be many reports that the Kino will not grant him an immediate dissolution. Yet by staying in office he can only involve himself in further difficulties in respect of Home Rule, women's suffrage,' and the Labour demand for the reversal of the Osborne decision. On the surtho situation looks like developing into the reappearance, for a short time, of Me. Balfour as Prime Minister. This will place tho Unionists in a strong position, especially as they are vigorously establishing tho reform of the House of Lords as an urgent piece of 'policy. The immediate developments will be of absorbing interest. , The evergreen subject of naval disarmament has recently been discussed by German, French, and American writers from their-differ-ent standpoints, with some interest to the people of the British Empire. Rear-Admiral E. ICalan von Hofe, writing in tho Deutsche Revue, 'declares disarmament impossible,. In the course of his article he points out that the Tsae's famous peace manifesto did not prevent war in Cuba and in the Philippines, or the Boer War, or the Russo-Japanese War; and while peace is being preached by all the nations at tho present time, Anglo-German relations have yet given rise to considerable anxiety, and the nations go on adding to their fleets. Admiral von ' Hofe argues that nothing in the way of disarmament can' bo hoped for until England, tho 'possessor of the strongest fleet, leads the way. European developments, he holds, have made England uncomfortable; her. political influence is not so effective as it was; the dogma of her naval supremacy is not so unconditionally recognised, and tho inadequacy of her military organisation produced the ridiculous invasion- panic, and compelled her to concentrate her entire fleet in the North Sea. But she knows her power and force, and she is too strong and too proud to abandon her unique position. And ! so Admiral von Hofe concludes that critical times are ahead, and Europeans must wait—but not disarm. Commandant Leonce Abeille, in the Remte de Paris, while holding that disarmament can only come with peace, advocates the . limitation of tonnage as a step in the direction of arbitration, and invites the friends of peace to work for this end. While reducing expenditure, this would still permit any nation to construct as many units as it chose. Me. Elmee Robeets contributes his views on the German and British navies to Scribner's Magazine. His argument that Germany's ambitions do not rise to tho height of building a navy to equal Britain's, but rather to ensure that their navy shall be sufficiently strong to make Britain hesitate to attack Germany under avoidable circumstances, is very widely held outside Great Britain. German naval plans, Me. Roberts submits, leave to Britain superiority on the sea, but not such a superiority as leaves German shipping, the sprinkling of German colonies, and the immense German investments in other countries, defenceless. About three to two in favour of Britain is the proportion he estimates as tho aim of Germany. These views are interesting enough in their way, but they are not at all likely to influence public opinion in Britain overmuch. We have at various times directed attention to the harmful effects on Parliament and our public life of tho lowering of tho standard of political conduct by tho leaders of Parliament. The descent into trickery; tho utter absence of sound guiding principles; the makeshift policy on large issues; the backing and filling incidental to tho constant endeavour of the Ministry to catch every passing breeze of popular favour; tho gradual lessening of the dignity and privileges of tho office of member of Parliament through the Executive usurping tho powers and functions of Parliament—all these things have had an evil inllucnco in gradually lowering the tone of our political life. The change has comc about by slow stages, and members have in consequence become accustomed to .conditions which would shock be:

t yond measure an outsider familiar i with British political institutions. ' In the Legislative Council yestcri day, for instance, the Att'orney- : General, in announcing his inten--1 tion to move certain amendments to the Licensing Bill, deemed it necessary to assure the Council that they contained "no traps of any kind or anything likely to mislead the Council." Now, to most people here accustomed to existing conditions this probably sounds like a very proper and necessary assurance to make. But what does it imply 1 If it means anything at all, it means that tho Council and the public have had such reason to fear traps and trickery in the legislative proposals of tho Government that tho Government, to assist the passage of its Bill, was compelled tu give an assurance in advance that it is not on this occasion, at any rate, attempting any trickery. No doubt Dn. Findlay would not state the position in this blunt fashion, but that a Minister of the Crown should feel it incumbent on him to give such an assurance; and that that course should be accepted .as quite the natural one to take is the strongest proof possible of the descent made in our political^standards. Tho real injury underlying the situation is the inevitable loss of respect on the part of the public for what should . be not onty the highest, but the most respected, institution in the land.