THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT.

Hokitika Guardian, 19 February 1923, Page 1

THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT.

ATTSTRAUAN AND N.Z. CAiH.E ASSOCIATION. UI- IT LSI I POLITICS. ANSWERS TO (,>(.'KS'ITONS. LONDON. Fob IG. .Mr Montague Barlow (Minister ol' Labour) replying in the Commons to the debate on unemployment, said the Government wer earnestly alive to the duty of pressing oil measures for alleviating unemployment. Nevertheless the picture was not so black as painted. The savings of the people were inert using ns shown by the sn\ings bank deposits and oilier investments. Road development and similar systems Imd been in progress since Xovemlx r." Tbe.se sebemes provided work for an additional two hundred thousand men. Expenditure on the out of employment fund in two and a-lutll years had totalled 120 millions. .Mr Baldwin (Chancellor of the I'.xchof|iicr) said the .settlement with Aimvica, which we had expressed our willingness to accept, fixed our debt at 1.004.128.083 dollars of which 1.128.0,53 would be paid in cash anti the balance funded on the terms announced. This involved a yearly payment at par of exchange of thirty-three millions sterling, rising to thirty-eight millions in ten years, or eight per etui, more at 4.30 dollars to the pound. These figures were exclusive of sixtyone million dollars plus interest under tht' war agreement to purchase silver, which have to he liquidated by May 1021. The Exchequer would continue to suck the most advantageous terms it could from America-. How far that wa s possible depended largely upon the arrangement they made for rode t ming the debt..

SCENE IX COMMONS. LONDON. Feb 17. There was something approaching a scene in the Commons over j question by Mr Kirkwood (Labour) whether tlit* Duke of Turk’s allowance of CtO.OOII per year would he increased to £23,000 on his marriage, whether the approval of I’arliament was necessary, and whether income tax and super-tax were ] aya bio. Mr Baldwin replied that the provision was authorised under old Acts and was chargeable with income tax and super tax. Mr Kirkwood eharaelerisi <1 the answer as unintelligible, rousing a chorus of interruptions. Mr Kirkwood demanded that tin’ reply -jtotild he couched in language that Him people he represented could ovicr-tand. There had been much talk of economy and the working classes were having their wages ri(lured and the present was a glorious opportunity for starting at the tup of the tree. The uproar was -uc!i that Mr Kirkwood was inaudible, and sat down shouting: “I won’t lie insulted.” Fi imiF.ll OI’ESTIOXS. LONDON. Fel. 17. Replying to a question whether the Oovoninienl under article nineteen ol tb" League of .Nations Covenant would j instruct British representatives to raise the mqsrion of a revision of the \ residues Treaty, Hon Honor Law -aid lie did not think any advantage would result from such an action. Mr McNeill, replying to a question said the Hovernmen bad not taken the law officers’ opinion wlmihcr the French action in Ruhr was contrary to the Versailles Treaty.