BRITISH POLITICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 182, 23 July 1908, Page 3

BRITISH POLITICS.

THE ARMY. ; London, July 21. Iu the House of Lords Earl Crewe stated that no further reductions of the strength of the Army was contemplated. The Government was making inquiries regarding the general expenditure, but this was not confined to any one department.

THE UNEMPLOYED. London, July 21. Returns prepared by Mr John Burns, President oi the Local Government Board, show that 8.2 per cent, of the members of trade unions arc unemployed, as against 3.0 per cent.- in 1907. ID is impossible to estimate the number of unskilled workers who are unemployed.

THE LICENSING BILL. London, July 21. The committee'discussion on the Li censing Bill has begun in the House oi Commons.

The House sat all night discussing Vhe first clause : of the Bill, providing for the statutory limitation of thc number of licenses. No progress was made. There was" much heated discussion. A sharp passage occurred between the Premier, Mr. H. H. Asuuith, and Mr. Austen Chamberlain. The Premier suggested that Mr. Chamberlain had not read the Bill, and the remark was resented as discourteous. Lord Robert Cecil, and others intervened, and the chairman finally stopped the tumult and narrowly averted a "scene.'"

CABINET CRISIS AVERTED. Received 22 ,9.40 p.m. London, July 22,

The Daily Express states that a Cabinet crisis which was threatened and which would have brought about the resignation of four Ministers, with perhaps the entire Army Council, ended in the defeat of the section desirous of reducing the Army to the barest proportions. Mr. Haldane's supporters gained ii narrow majority*