LORDS VERSUS PEOPLE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 263, 13 December 1909, Page 2

LORDS VERSUS PEOPLE.

THE GREAT TOMTICAL STRUGGLE.

THE PREMIER OPENS FIRE

GOVERNMENT'S POLICY OUTLINED

WILL OF THE ,PEOPLE TO PREVAIL.

WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE.

SELF-GOVERNMENT FOR IRELAND.

FURTHER SOCIAL REFORM.

By Cable—Press Association—Copyright Received 12, 0.0 p.m. London, December 11.

The majority of the 'members of 'he Cabinet and many Liberal Peers aui Commoners supported the Premier (M". H. 11. Asquith) at the Albert Hi'l. There was a crowded and demonstrative gathering, which was estimated to com prise 10.000, all men. Mr. Asquith opened by saying that at last election, the Liberals had reckoned without their host. They were nil going to make the same mistake again. The Liberal Party had now laid upon them the single task of vindicating and establishing upon an unshukea'ole foundation the principle of

REPRESENTATIVE GOVERN-

All the causes for which they had been lighting, hung on the principle, including education, Welsh disestablishment, licensing and woinen'ii suffrage. The latter would be an open question for the House of Commons i» connection with the next Electral Re vform Kill. Despite the deplorable aad suicidal excess of a small section of advocates 01 women's suffrage, the Go vernment had no disposition to baulk women's suffrage. THE QUESTION" 01? IRELAND was still one of the great failures of British statesmanship. Speaking on behalf of his colleagues, he said that the only solution was a system of self-go-vernment purely in connection with Irish affairs, which should be explicitly safeguarded, the supreme authority being the Imperial I'arliament. The present Government had not been able to advance in proposing this solution, but the Liberals' hands in the new Parliament would be perfectly free. FURTHER SOCIAL UEl'olJM. Old age was only one of the hazards in which the industrial population was exposed. Sickness, invalidity and unemployment were spectres always hovering on the horizon. "We believe," he went on, "the time has come when the State should lend a helping hand. This is one of the secrets of the 1901) Budge:. It was rightly described as a Budget which looked beyond the 31st of next March." THE LORDS' VETO. Only once in living memory had t'le Lords attempted to touch a tingle ux. The taxes imposed and repealed My the House of Commons had now been shattered and with them the whole faurie of the year's taxation. He quotvd Mr. Joseph Chamberlain's'and Mr. 11 ilfour's Birmingham meeting speeches lo prove fhat the Lords' manoeuvre wns to reject the Budget, because it piovi.kd an effective substitute—a destructive substitute—to tariff reform. "I tell yo.i plainly, I tell my countrymen outside, that neither 1 nor any "other Libe'M Minister is going to submit again to

THE RKDII'TS AND HUMILIATION

that have been passed on us for yeai". I favor a bi-cameral system. 1 can see much practical advantage in a body impartially exercising the powers of revision and amendment, subject to proper safeguards, but absolute veto must go, WHAT THE GOVERNMENT DEMAND. The Government demand the authority to translate their action-unwritten and unused—into Parliamentary Acts, and* aTso authority to place upon the Statute book a recognition, explicit and complete, of a settled constitutional duo trine that it is beyond the province of the House o! Lords to meddle with national lin.inee and the will of the people, .as deliberately expressed by their elected representatives, and must within the life of a siiurle I'ailiainent be made effective. That and the reduction of the duration of parliaments to five years is the Liberal policy. I should not fear four years." A STIRRING APPEAL. \ ■"!• h concluded: "How do we stand? I hope and trust we stand ifnitcd and that all sectional divisions "fill be fused and combined in a common campaign against the common enemy. We have behind us the examples of the greatest apostles of 'kmocracy in our time, Gladstone and Bright. We have the support of the memories of the past, the needs of the present and the hopes of the future. Quit yourselves like men.'" OTHER CABINET MINISTERS. Mr. Lloyd-George (Chancellor of the Exchequer), in a brief speech, said the subtlest and most potent human weaknesses, quaekerv and snobbery, were ar".ed against the Liberals.' "but," ie said, "we shall beat them both." Mr, Churchill (President of .lie Board, of Trade) said: "We intend to smash the l/irds' veto up. If we work together nothing can withstand us."

"CULMINATION OF A LONG-DRAWN

CONSPIRACY."

MANOEI'VRING THE LORDS.

MR. BALFOUR ATTACKS THE

GOVERNMENT

THE UNIONISTS' POLICY

TARIFF REFORM THE FIRST PLANK

Received 12, 5.5 p.m. London, December 11

Mr. Balfour (Leader of the Opposition), in a manifesto to his constituents, r Ktiict the Government were claiming that tho House of Commons, no matter how elected, should have uncontrolled pover over every class of the community, without appeal to the community. The present question was not whether the second chamber could resist the people's declared wishes. In the United States all kind* of property were taxed alike. A two-thirds majority would he required for such special'tax provisions as those in the Budget. Moreover, the Senate could reject and the President veto special taxation. The present attack on the House of Lords was the culmination ot a long-drawn conspiracy. The Government from the first. sou»iit not to work the constitution but to destroy it, making in effect I

A SrXUL'E CHAMBER. , J The Budget gave the Government a rod,! opportunity for manoeuvring the Lords ] so that they must abandon the functions <>f the second chamber or take a it'D ' which would give new life to the sin*lc chamber. Mr. Balfour continued: "Tint tlie people will refuse to consider th»msclves insulted by .being asked their opinions on the Budget, nor will they think the Lords have gone beyond thi>i'r 'lnly in asking it. The House of Comnions already possess great powers, beyond those of the republics of America and France, in some rcepecls that eouM not be explained, but the Govcrnm-nt desired the House of Commons to be independent not only of the House of fiords, but of the people. There co'ild DO NG SECURITY that a single chamber is not necordin" to the will of electors. A House of Commons returned on the Chinese silvery cry could not be assumed to represent the nation's mind on questions of socialism. A single chamber is impossible in the region of finance. Tf there is need for money to be used for adooting instalment* of ! A SOCrALIST BUDGET and treating property, not according |o the amount but origin, of vindictively attacking political opponents, then the people had a right to be consulted. The right never could have been exercised if the Peers had not used on behalf of the people the powers invested in them." ' THE LORDS —A CHANGE NECESSARY. Ho would.not BB y tl>at a change wns not required by modifications, of the, House of Lord?' or 4 referendum, Tito"

Houso contained men of first eminence of all branches, He did not think they House should be a rival to the House of Commons, or completely elective, imt their functions could be improved.

UNEMPLOYMENT-TARIFF RBFO-W THE ONLY REMEDY.

Referring to unemployment, he ur„'od the reform of the poor law. Every member of the recent commission c msidered the present law might be scrapped,, but State methods of dealing with destitution did little to promote labor. He looked for that in tariff reform, which would stimulate (home industry. It alone would contain colonial preference and modify the commercial treaties and secure home products against foreign competition. It w«* the lirat plank in the Unionists' platform. He complained of the Government's elusory policy—"back to the land." Th''ir methods discouraged private ownership, Mcept in Ireland, by insisting that tenants should become the tenants of a public body. There was no farmer who would not prefer tenancy under one Jf Mr. Lloyd-George's dukes! At present he would say nothing about the Navy. Th.? situation waß grave and the future anxious. He did not think the mi'-'V would forget or forgive the negiigcu. e which has encouraged the present rivalry in ship-building, which all deplored.

LLOYD-GEORGE AT CARNARVON'

OVERCOME BY EMOTION.

London, December 10. Mr. Lloyd-George, Chancellor of the Exchequer, exhibited the Celtic temperament at Carnarvon, where, after announcing he would never forsake Carnarvon for Cardiff, was so int'di moved by his hearers 1 " enthusiasm tint he burst into tears and resumed his seat without finishing his speech. At the outset of his speech be declared: "Neither Ireland nor Wales can ever obtain its rights except by marching over the ruins of the Lords," and added: "When the Liberals win this light theie will be a new earth." THE ANTI-BUDGET LEAGUE. London, December 10. The Budget Protest League has been dissolved on account of having attaimd its object. The League issued 20.000.1V0 leaflets, 300,000 posters, arranged 3jo large meetings, many thousands nf smaller meetings and various organisations which amalgamated with the central Conservative office. THE EARL OF PORTSMOUTH. London, Deceinb;r 10. The Earl of Portsmouth, whilst disapproving of the Budget, declines' to assist the Liberal campa : gii. MR. WILL CROOKS. Hobart. December U. Mr. Will Crooks, M.P., on reaching llobart by the .Moernki. was handed a cable recalling hiia to England immediately. f