THE BUDGET BATTLE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2895, 8 September 1909, Page 18

THE BUDGET BATTLE.

LONDON, August 31.

under the auspices of the Budget Protest League at Glasgow on September 10. September 5. The Westminster Gazette admits that there is a growing assumption that the House of Lords will reject the Budget, but the paper is confident that the Peers' action would be reluctant. The Gazette adds that the political temDerature is decidedly changeable, but Lord I Landsdowne may be trusted to recomI mend what will be the least perilous thing i in all the circumstances from a Unionist standpoint. September 6. Mr Winston Churchill, speaking at Leicester, said the great difficulty that confronted speakers at Budget Leagu9 meetings was that they had nobody to reply to. It was true that Mr Balfour had from time to time emitted four or five columns of inspired equivocations, which the chief newspapers hastened to acclaim as snother epoch-making announcement. The small fry of the Tory party had bein splashing actively in their j proper puddles. He only »ioped that their performances had given satisfaction to their' employers — the brewers and ground landlords. The ■ millionaire newspapers were so painfully conscious of ths absence of a Tojy spokesman capable of answering Mr Lloyd-George's Limehouse ; speech on August 1 that they were inclined to take up Lord Rosebery The Government did not ask the rich people how much they had, but how they got tkeir riches. Taxation according to the origin of wealth was a new idea, and it was no wonder that it raised a great stir and caused heart-searchings. Mr Churchill (continuing) said: "If the House of Lords win it will have asserted its right to control the finances of the country. If we lose we shall smash their veto to pieces. The fight will be a fight to a finish, and the fullest forfeits will be exacted from the defeated foe."