"OUT WITH THE LORDS!"

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 192, 23 November 1910, Page 5

"OUT WITH THE LORDS!"

SPEECH BY MR. LLOYD-GEORGE. POLICY OF GREAT SOCIAL REFORMS. TAXATION OF WEALTH AND LUXURIES. AMERICAN' DOLLARS PROPPING U'P PEERAGES. By Cable—Press Association.—Copyright. Receiver 23, 2.12 a.m. London. November 22. Mr. Lloyd-George, addressing a meeting of 5000 people at Mile End, claimed a due sense of his responsibility as a Cabinet Minister in declaring that they could trust the Government not to provoke a wanton election or an election with the certainty of a final decisive majority. The rejection of the Budget in 1909 had precipitated the present crisis. Money was needed for defence and great schemes of social reform, and the Government proposed to tax great incomes, fortunes, and luxuries of all classes.

The Lords demanded that their great wealth should be spared, that their luxuries should be free, and the burdens imposed on the bread and meat of the people.

The Government answered "No." The Lords then said, "Out with the Budget!" The Government now asked the people to sav "Out!" to the House of Lords.

After insisting on the complete financial success of the Budget, Mr. LloydGeorge remarked, concerning the statement that the dissolution was by Mr. Redmond's dictation, that the Tories must always have a bogey. This time it was a gilt-edged bogey, framed of American dollars. Since when had the aristocracy started despising American dollars? Many a noble house tottering to its fall had its foundations pinned up with American dollars. Mr. Redmond on the whole was a stern critic of the Budget. It was a British measure, and a British demand, and its rejection was an insult to the British democracy, which resented it.

The Lords' schemes for their own reform were shams. What was wanted was a Parliament which attended to the country's business, and enabled justice to have as easy access to the grey homes «f the people as to the palaces of the mighty.

A PEER EXASPERATED. THE POSITION INTOLERABLE. ANGRY SCENE IN THE UPPER HOUSE. Received 23, 1.25 a.m. London, November 22. The House of Lords had a remarkable sitting, which came to a sudden, dramatic and angry close. Lord Crewe, in a moderate speech, argued that the Parliament Bill offered no risk of hurried legislation, and he complained that it was unfair to describe it as a single Chamber proposal. He commended the Bill as a means of restoring a reasonable measure of freedom to the chosen representatives of a free nation. Lord Lansdowne, in securing the adjournment until to-morrow, emphasised that had there been free discussion and a possibility of amending the Bill, many peers would have supported the second reading. He proposed that the House on "Wednesday should discuss the resolutions he was now tabling, with a view of completing the Lords' own scheme of reform, whereof the first part was embodied in Lord Rosebery's resolutions. Lord Crewe enquired whether the resolutions would be moved as an amendment to the motion for the second reading of the Bill. Lord Lansdowne: All I propose is to adjourn the discussion. Lord Crewe a«ain asked his intentions.

Lord Salisbury replied that it was "intolerable that the peers should be restricted to 'aye' or 'no'." If they were not allowed to submit alternative proposals in reference to the Bill in detail after the second reading they would do so before the rest of the country was misled. Lord Beauchamp said the Opposition asked for the Bill, and then ran away.

LETTER FROM MR. CHAMBERLAIN. TRADES UNIONS DIVIDED. Received 13, 1.15 a.m. London, November 22. It is stated on high authority that the Government would have been willing to accept an amendment of the Parliament Bill co-operative with the present Parliament. Mr. Asquith received a deputation of the Trade Union and Political Freedom League, which was against the reversal of the Osborne judgment. He promised to submit their arguments to his colleagues before a decision was arrived at. Mr. Chamberlain, in a letter to the West Birmingham Unionist Association, emphasised that there were two issues: Firstly, the Second Chamber, and, secondly, Tariff Reform. He added: 'On the issues raised depend the prosperity of the country, the welfare of the people, and the union of the Empire."

LORD LAXSDOWXE'S FURTHER PROPOSALS. A SPIRIT OF COMPROMISE. LORDS TO FOR ECO RTC.HT OF VETO. Received 22, 5.40 |t.m. London. November 21. Lord Crewe moved tlie second readinir of the Veto liill. Lord Roberts withdrew his defence motion. Ixird Crewe stating lie was nimble to discuss it at the present juncture.

Lord Lansdowno jpive notice <if his intention to move on Wednesday resolutions dealing with the deadlock helwceii the tivo Houses. The resolutions favor a referendum on matters of great gravity, the Lords foregoing their to reject or amend purely financial and money Bills, the question of "tacking" to be

settled by a joint committee of both Houses, the Speaker having a casting vote. In the House of Commons, Mr. Asquith, in reply to a question, said lie was not prepared to state the amount of members' salaries proposed. A PLEA FOR MODERATION. Received 22. 10.30 p.m. London, November 21. Mr. A. Bonar Law, M.P., speaking at North-west Manchester, advocated the reform of the Lords, enabling the Constitution gradually to meet the changed conditions of a changed world. Unionists preferred reform to revolution. He was not an extreme Tariff Reformer, but he was in earnest and desired that any necessary change should be made as little revolutionary as possible. TARIFF REFORM. TAX ON FOREIGN WHEAT ONLY. Received 22, 10.30 p.m. London, November 21. Mr. Austen Chamberlain, in a letter to Mr. Bernard, candidate for North Bucks, states that the maximum duty on wheat proposed by Tariff Reformers was sixpence a hundredweight, or two shillings a quarter, on foreign wheat only. He adds: Home-grown and colonial wheat are to be free, and the figures named will not he exceeded. It is desirable to encourage the importation of the whole grain, instead of flour, to enable the milling to be done here, and to give farmers the offals for feed for stock. The duty on flour should be proportionally somewhat higher than wheat.

LABOR EXCHANGES CONDEMNED. Received 22, 6.40 p.m. London, November 21. A conference of trade unions and Socialist organisations disapproved of the labor exchanges, which supplied cheap non-union labor.

THE SUFFRAGETTES. Received 22, 6.40 p.m. London. November 21. The suffragettes were disappointed with their dismissal, for they had been expecting imprisonment. Militant tactics have been suspended, pending the Premier's announcement of the fate of the Conciliation Bill. Meanwhile pickets outside the House of Commons form a peaceful protest.

ADVICE GRATIS. Received 22, 6.40 p.m. London, November 21. The Times recommends the House of Lords to pass its own resolutions dealing with reform, and thus frustrate the action of the Liberals in suppressing discussion. The Spectator urges on the Conservatives a policy of concentration and subordinating everything to the reform of the Lords. The paper recommends the Lords to pass the Veto Bill, with a clause providing for a referendum before it comes into operation.

UNIONIST WORKING MEN'S CANDIDATES. London, November 21. The Unionist working men's candidates include Ben Dent (Macclesfield), Councill Campbell (Stockport), Will Ripon (Norwich), Tom Smith (Hyde Division), Alderman Walker (Attercliffe Division) and Bagley (Radcliffe Division). TOEING THE LINE. London, November 21. Mr. Michael Joyce, M.P., at a meeting at Whitechapel on the anniversary of the execution of Larcin and O'Brien, the Manchester martyrs, said that Mr. Asquith's speech on Friday indicated that the Liberal Party had toed the line like men.