ULSTER CAMPAIGN.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1564, 7 October 1912, Page 5

ULSTER CAMPAIGN.

SPEECH BY MR- ASQUITH

MR, BONAR LAW'S "GRAMMAR

OF ANARCHY."

GREAT TACTICAL ERROR

Uy Trlezrnph-Press Aesocialion-CoDyricht (Kcc. October 7, 0.45 a.m.) London, October 8. The Prime Minister; Mr. Asquilh, has delivered nn important speech at Ladybank in Fife-hire. Alter referring to the rejection of tho Budget of 10119 by the House of Lords as a colossal tactical error, he said the Unionislcompaign in Ulster was equally so. Ho had never under-rated the importance of Ulster's opposition to Home Rule, but the apprehensions of tho Ulstermen were ill-founded, for tho safeguards in the Bill wero adequate and ample. It was not a question of demanding a separate Parliament for Ulster, or part of The- Government was not going to bow to a threat which was a negation of the root principle of democratic government. The Tories would not bo able to confine their doctrine of resistance to tho present case, for Mr. Bonar Law's reckless rhodomontado at Blenheim furnished a complete grammar of anarchy and tho new dictum would Iμ invoked whenever a spirit of lawlessness desired to stop the ordered machinery of government. If tho demands of four-fifths of j the Irishmen wero not granted they might take the law into their own hands. Turning to general politics, M. Asquilh added thnt the Government's land reform policy would be announced after and not before Cabinet had considered it

ULSTER CONVINCED, NOT COERCED. (Rec. October 0, 5.5 p.m.) London, October 5. Sir Ruftis Isaacs, Attorney-General, in a speech at Edinburgh, said the Government was etill rendy to treat the minority in Ireland (.'onerously. The solution sought was to have Ulster convinced, not Ulster coerced. BRITAIN'S HOUSING PROBLEM.

SCANDALOUS CONDITIONS ALLEGED.' By Telceraph-Pross Aesociation-OopTricht London, October 5. The Miners' Congress yesterday discussed the housing problem. Some of the speakers stated that a third of the population of Great Britain lived in overcrowded dw-illings, and that 800,000 persons in London were living under scandalous conditions,

FAILURE HOUSING ACT. FEW NEW BUILDINGS. Writing in.the "Daily News" recently Mr. Harold Spender said: "The country is faced with the fact that the whole scheme of reform built up under the Housing Acts from 1890 to 1909 has proved inadequate to ni&et the new needs. Some work hns been done, no doubt. There are a feiy progressive authorities—chiefly in tho towns that have moved with the times, and the medical ■service throughout the country has been greatly improved. But the needs of the people .have, grown out .of all proportion to theprovisions of the law.

"Take the Housing Act of 1909. That law has been signally successful in regard to the closiiiE of houses—and that is about all. Under it there were. 4767 closing orders; made in England and Wales in the thrco years 1909-11, and many of those orders are now being carried out. •

"But far fewer new houses have been built, and the mere fact of. closing houses, though it may be necessary for the moment, intensities the need of accommodation. 'There are. parts of England where at the present moment thousands of workmen have to walk miles to their work, and there are eVen eases where families employed in legitimate industry can find no lodging save the hard, cold ground. "Much was hoped of the town planning section of the Act of 1909. Three years have passed, and only one scheme has yet been ratified. The Act itself is hopelessly cumbrous, and the Lecal Government Board has succeeded in tying up even what is good in the Act in a vast and complicated tangle of red tape. "While we are faced with this utter breakdown of the law, the evil itself meanwhile is growing worse. The owners of big estates are replying to the Budget by refusing to build workmen's cottages. The rural district councils as n whole refuse to move, and the county councils refuse to quicken them up. In no single case since 1909 has the Local Government Board had submitted to it an order for compulsory acquisition of land under the powers conferred under the Act of 1909. "We are faced therefore with an almost complete breakdown of English, local government throughout the country districts in regard to this vital matter of the housing of the- people."