BRITISH PARLIAMENT

Hokitika Guardian, 9 March 1925, Page 1

BRITISH PARLIAMENT

• AUSTRALIAN AND N.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION POLITICAL LEVY BILL R EJECTED. LONDON, March 7. The House of Commons lias rejected Mr MacQuistcn’s Trade Union Political Levy Bill. The House, carried, by 1)25 votes to 51), an amendment by Mr Baldwin, the Premier, alproving of the p'iinciplc of political liberty as embodied in the Bill, but expressing the opinion that a measure of such far-reaching importance should - not be introduced as a private Member’s bill. The House of Commons was unusually crowded for a. Friday for the debate on the Bill. Them was a full attendance of Labour Members. Mr Baldwin said that the Conservatives. while they believed that the Bill was just, were not going to push their political advantage home at present, because they stood for peace in the eountrv and for the abolition of suspicion.

The Liberals supported the Govern nieni’s amendment-, which the supporters of the Bill accepted.

PREMIER'S PLEA FOR PEACE. *■ LONDON, March G. Mr Baldwin made a speech on the Labour Union Political Levy Bill which deeply impressed the House of Commons. Pie [minted out that social development was more rapid than most of the onlookers realised. The great forces of the employers and the employees. whereon the next stage of industrial civilisation depended, carried a huge responsibility, both of which must be directed by men with right beads and hearts. Whatever form evolution was taking, it must be in the direction of closer [jartnership, the terms of which could not he laid down by statute. lie wanted to see at the head of both sides men knowing exactly where the shoe pinched, and actuated by desire to steer their respective ships side by side, instead of steering for head on collisions. The Conservatives, he said, believed in the justice of a bill regarding political levies in labour unions, but they did not intend pushing their political advantage at a moment when poison was preventing 'stability both here and abroad. They wotd dnot fire the first shot, but they stood for peace, the removal of suspicion, and the creation of a new age, wherein people would come together. They might be called cowards, but he was confident that their desire for peace would be re-echo-ed, and that there were many in all parties who would re-echo his prayer: “Give pence in our time, O Lord!’ - Subsequent speakers, belonging to all parties, paid a tribute to Mr Baldwin’s eloquent appeal.