The Daily News. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 21. THE CRISIS AT HOME.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 194, 25 November 1910, Page 4

The Daily News. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 21. THE CRISIS AT HOME.

Mr. Timothy Healy was not without honor as a prophet in his own country when during October he said: "We cannot be more than a month from the bankruptcy of the Veto Conference." That the Conference was a bankrupt one the world knows. The rejection by the Lords of the 1909 Budget centred the eyes of all political parties on the Upper Chamber and made the present crisis inevitable. Mr. Haldane, Secretary for War, was asked in October when the next General Election would be. He replied with Ministerial inconelusion: "It will come like x thief in the night." The necessity for an election, according to the scrappy evidence on which to base a conclusion, is that the Liberal Party must demonstrate its strength and show by an appeal to the people that its policy, which is obviously the most advanced and humanitarian ever laid down in Britain, is in agreement with the ideas of the bulk of British electors. The position at this crisis is peculiar. Both the Liberal Party and the Unionist Party are extremely powerful organisations, each under a brilliant leader. The strength of the Liberal Party lies, one would say, in its absolute agreement with its leader, and its cohesion. The weakness of the Unionist Party, it would seem, lies in the diversity of opinion and dissatisfaction within its ranks. Among the Tories there has been a distinct disposition to attack the leadership of Mr. Balfour, and it has been suggested time after time that the enemies of his policy in the ranks of the Unionists, strengthened maybe by recruits from the Liberal side, may yet form a third ("Moderate") party, antagonistic to both. Mr. Haldane, Minister for War, although in opposition to Mr. Balfour, regards him as a very great statesman whom, whilst his party show a disposition to "kick over the traces," they will not desert or depose from the leadership. Mr. Haldane said of Mr. Balfour: "I can conceive nothing worse for the country or for the Opposition than that Mr. Balfour should be deposed from the leadership of the Unionist Party. He is too valuable a man." In an election it seems inevitable that disagreement within the Unionist ranks will wreck the party at the polls. Mr. Lloyd-George has shown that as the Peers said, "Out with the Budget," the people must say, "Out with the Peers!" but we find Mr. A. H. Scott, M.P. for Ashton-under-Lyne, declaring before the abortive Veto Conference:" "The House of Lords has lived a long time, and I believe the youngest of my hearers will never live to see that House done away with." This, of course, depends upon the temper of the people. European events have been by way of showing that class domination is seriously agitating the nations, and although the notable sanity of the British people makes them slow to wrath, under the whip of great leaders they mad be disposed to more revolutionary methods than are .common to them. Mr. Lloyd-George's reference to the "Tory bogey" that Mr. Redmond had dictated the dissolution is interesting as showing the vital part "Home Rule" is playing in the present crisis. Some light on the "American dollar" reference made by the Chancellor and the fact that the devolutionists and Unionists are partial to United States coin, was thrown by Mr. O'Brien in an impassioned speech. As Avill be remembered, Messrs. Redmond and O'Connor went on a "mission" to America, much to the disgust of Mr. O'Brien, who referred to them as the "American beggar men." ' He showed that the "all for Ireland" movement was progressing by leaps and bounds, and would progress at a still greater pace if the extraordinary tactics of Mr. Redmond in pronouncing for devolution after denouncing it for seven years had not harassed the movement, "What honest man," asked Mr. O'Brien, "could have confidence in a leader, who in one speech said that devolution and Home Rule all round ■were as dead as a door nail, and who a few weeks afterwards threw Gladstonian Home Rule to the winds, and declared for the same measure of devolution which Mr. Chamberlain had offered to them a quarter of a century ago?" On this great and vital question Mr. Healy said that he believed the speeches of Mr. Redmond and Mr. O'Connor in America meant the dropping of "Home Rule for Ireland" altogether, and that Ireland must wait her turn until the freshly hatched claims of Scotland and Whiles were attended to. In short, Mr. Healy showed that the Government did not desire to go to the country hampered with the cry of "Home Rule for Ireland" and the reform of the Lords. The people of Britain will probably be influenced in the elections by the fact that if the Lords' immense wealth is-.not adequately taxed, the future measures of relief the Liberal Government intend to carry out for the people cannot be effected, and their food, instead of the land of the peers, must bear the burden. The Liberal reformer has already effected immense benefices to the people. He has given the people old age pensions, better houses, better regulated mines, and improved workshops. But infinitely greater than all these he has concentrated his common sense on the problem of the children of the poor. It is beginning to be recognised in Britain that to allow children to go hungry is humanity's worst crime. Nobody gainsays the assertion that a territorial magnate gorged with wealth is a criminal if he does 'not fisfht with his gold and his influence for the children of his race. While there is any section in Great Britain which regards human beings as inferior cattle, because they cannot help being poor, Britain is hot safe from startling