BRITISH POLITICS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 815, 17 March 1910, Page 3

BRITISH POLITICS.

London, March 14

Mr Kier Hardie, speaking at Swansea, said some arrangement was possible for allowing the Government. to drag out a tolerated existence beyond June ; hut the Labour Party must not in the meantime be content simply to act as a prop to the Government, and must be careful lest it be buried in its ruins. He added, with reference to the threatened contest in Mid-Glamorgan, where Mr Hartshorn, a Socialist, is in the field, that, rather than hold seats by the grace of Liberals or of the Tories, he preferred Labour to be without the House until it won them on its own strength. The naval estimates are expected to provide employment for 200,000 men for two years. Two thousand extra are to be engaged at Poplar in broadening and lengthening the slip for the accommodation of Dreadnoughts. Another 1000 will be engaged after April Ist.

In reply to Lord Hugh Cecil, Premier Asquith said that the Government could not give the undertaking but intended to pass the Budget before the spring recess. This intention was not contingent on anything that might happen elsewhere.

Both parties in Canterbury offer to re-elect Mr Henniker Heaton unopposed if he will reconsider his decision to retire.

London, March i 6

The House of Lords was thronged yesterday by a brilliant gathering, the Prince and Princess of Wales being among those present.

The Earl of Rosebery, in moving that the House go into committee on his resolutions —

1. That a strong and efficient Second Chamber is an integral part of the Constitution, and is necessary for the well-being of the State and the balance of Parliament.

2. That such a Chamber can best lie obtained by reform and reconstruction of the House of Lords ;

3. That a necessary preliminary to such reconstruction is the acceptance of the principle that possession of a peerage no longer of itself gives the right to sit and vote in the House of Lords. He contended that it would be hopeless to imagine that the Government’s veto resolution, if passed in 1910, would be followed by reform in 1911. The Liberals would say to Mr Asquith: “We recognise your good intention ; but we do not mean to have anything to do with that. You have deprived the House of Lords of its privilege and power in a single session of Parliament. What more do we want?” Mr Asquith’s proposal resembled the ham-stringing of a valuable horse rather than entering for the Derby. Lord Rosebery concluded a closely reasoned and earnest speech against the Government’s proposal for complete domination by the Commons by setting up a sham and impotent Second Chamber, mentioning the lessons taught by the French revolution of the danger of withholding concessions until too late. He was convinced the House would rise to the height of a great occasion, and earn the gratitude of unborn generations. Viscount Morley urged the House to wait and hear what the Government’s proposals were. He said Lord Rosebery had failed to touch the emergency confronting them. What was needed was an effective means of settling differences between the two Houses.

Lord Northcote approved ol the resolutions, hut considered the details ot the proposals contained in them required careful examination. The debate was adjourned During his speech in the House of Lords. Pord Rosebery referred to Sir G. Reid, High Commissioner tor Australia, as a man of infinite ability, popularity and geniality. No better choice for the position could possibly hare been made. He asked ; How could Sir George Reid possibly justify to the Australians the abolition of the Second Chamber in Great Britain when Australia took care to secure a strong and efficient senate upon the institution of the Federation in 1900? The Colonies, he added, had always taken care to secure a strong Second Chamber. There is much comment in the newspapers on Pord Rosebery’s statement that he deprecated the elections of peers by popular vote. This would only give a feeling that the House of Pords was an understudy of the House of Commons, and would multiply the horrors of a general election, but the Pords would derive dignity by association with Corporations and County Councils formed into elective bodies upon the French basis. The representation provided in this way should form no inconsiderable proportion of the Upper House.

Sir Edward Grey, iu a speech at a liberal banquet in the City, said that if the reform of the House of Lords was left to the other side, the Liberals would be courting disaster, death, and damnation. The solution must be an elective chamber, elected not necessarily simultaneously with the Commons and not over the same area. The Government would re-impose the Budget taxes. By that they stood or fell.