THE BRITISH ELECTIONS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 199, 1 December 1910, Page 5

THE BRITISH ELECTIONS

LLOYD-GEORGES LANGUAGE.

CRITICISED OX THE CONTIXEXT,

ify Cable—Press Association —Copyright

Paris, November 29,

The Gaulois says that English statesmen heretofore have prided themselves on their courtesy to adversaries, but llr. Lloyd-George goes in search of personalities and infuriates his opponents ■with gibes, sarcasm and insolent persiflage in debates. Mr. Lloyd-George might by his merits elevate the commonalty, but he coarsely and brutally sinks to their level.

Vienna, November 29.

The Reichpost denominates Mr. LloydGeorge as a hot-blooded English Mirabeau,, while the Allgemeine Zeitung declares that it is repellent to hear an English Minister of the Crown openly praise revolution.

London, November 29.

Lord Curzon, speaking at Hull, challenged a comparison between his and Mr. Lloyd-George's life-work. He would sooner cut off his hand than poison the minds of his oountrymen and preach civil war. The spectable of the Liberal Party protesting against the referendum was enough to make the angels weep. ■Mr. Lloyd-George's statement that a referendum would cost two millions is much traversed. One estimate on the same proportion as Switzerland is that the cost would not exceed £16.000. No other estimate exceeds £250,000.

Lord Burghclere, in a letter, protests against the Bill enacting supremacy of one House by a bare majority without appeal.

The Times contends that a Second Chamber having no authority except •what it derives from the majority in the House of Commons would be an absolute farce. Any conceivable Second Chamber having an independent constitutional basis of its own would be better than a Chamber liable to be altered and re-altered at the uncontrolled caprice of the majority of the Chamber it is meant to check. The Manchester Guardian contends that the Lords' resolutions will give Conservatives a permanent majority in the reformed House by means of the proposed garrison of representative hereditary peers.

EXCITEMENT IN IRELAND. TALK OF ARMING AND BLOODSHED. London, November 29. At the Belfast demonstration, twenty thousand were unable to gain admission.

Lord Londonderry declared that the Government would be responsible for bloodshed in the event of Home Rule being granted.

The Ulster Council resolved to establish a fund to enrol regiments and purchase arms. Ten thousand pounds sterling was promised. New York, November 2D.

The United Irish League of America has opened a subscription for funds to assist the Irish Home Rulers.

VARIOUS ELECTION ITEMS. London, November 29. The Bow Liberal Association resolved not to support Mr. Lansburv. The crowd broke up a suffragette meeting at Stafford by means of snowballs.

The Council of the Northumberland Miners' Association, by 45 votes to 30, agreed to pay Mr. Thomas Burt's Parliamentary salary of £350, which he sacrificed by not signing the Laborite pledge.

Sir E. Grev, speaking at Dudley, said that the Lords' reforms would probably result in the House consisting of 120 Liberals and 290 Conservatives. Moreover, the Crown's prerogative to create peers would be gone for ever.

POLLING NEXT SATURDAY.

SIR EDWARD GREY'S ADDRESS.

Received 30, 9.5 p.m. London, November 30.

Polling takes place in fifty-five electorates on Saturday, including various Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester, Salford. Camberwell, Shoreditch and Western divisions; also at Grimsby, Darlingtpn and Newington.

London, November 30.

Sir Edward Grey's address to the electors says the Lords are not the only danger to the Commons. Without a large measure of devolution, Commons cannot attend to Imperial affairs, and matters concerning the whole country. Sir Edward Grey continues: If local powers resembling those of the Canadian provinces, are given in parts of the United Kingdom, it will not endanger but secure the supremacy of the Imperial Parliament. A reformed Second Chamber is a necessity, but with machinery ensuring that the considered opinion of a substantial majority of the Commons will prevail. Mr. Lewis Harcourt, M.P., is confined to his bed, and his wife is conducting an electioneering campaign in the Rossendale division.

Liberals will contest all London seats except the city.

MR. BALFOUR IN FIGHTING FORM, j DEALS WITH THE REFERENDUM. Received 30, 11.25 p.m. London, November 30. At a great Unionist demonstration at Albert Hall eleven thousand were present. Mr. W. H. Long read Ulster's message, which read: "If an Irish Parliament is established, Ulster will neither obey its decrees, nor pay its taxes." Mr. Balfour, after warning the Government that they were playing with revolution, discussed the question of the referendum. He declared that the Radicals were horribly embarrassed. All their lives they had talked "government of the people for the people by the people.". A dissolution would be expensive fait * .referendum 4jd

not involve a change,-.-and the Government could secure a clearer verdict without personal bitterness, which was inseparable where two candidates were in the field. One fantastic dealer with figures had estimated the cost of a referendum at two millions. In reality the cost would not exceed £200,000. The Radicals sought to put the Unionists in a hole by asking them whether thev would refer vital questions whereon the Lords and Commons were agreed—and particularly tariff reform —to a referendum. "The Radicals are mistaken. They will not put me in a hole. A project which is only three days old obviously involves practical difficulties, the magnitude of which I cannot ignore. Nevertheless I frankly say that tariff reform would involve a great change. I admit that this election, and perhaps any election, cannot be described as an election on the tariff reform alone. I have not the least objection to submitting the principles of tariff reform to a referendum." The announcement caused an extraordinary demonstration, the audience jumping to its feet and cheering.

Mr. Balfour continued that tariff reform was not a class but a national and Imperial matter, and he would be perfectly willing to submit it to the judgment of his fellow countrymen. He challenged the Liberals to give a similar promise regarding Home Rule. Mr. Asquith's argument that the referendum would destroy Parliamentary responsibility was equivalent to saying, "You will destroy the people's representatives; it gives the people too much power." He concluded:

"Don't trust th? Radical puppets, or the Irish showman who is pulling the strings. Don't trust the American paymaster, who is calling the tune. Trust the solid sense and judgment of the people alone."

NARROWED TO A SINGLE ISSUE.

THE PARAMOUNTCY OF THE PEOPLE. ,

Received 1, 12.20 a.m. London, November 30. Mr. Asquith, in his election address, says the appeal to the country is narrowed to this single issue: Are the people, through their freelv chosen representatives, to control the finance, administration and law-making? The Lords' schemes are proposed for the purpose of disguising the real issue, and would result in the creation of a Second Chamber capable of imposing an even more formidable veto than the present House of Lords.

Mr. Asquith addressed eight thousand at the railway sheds "at Reading. He {objected to the substitution for the judgment of the people's chosen representatives a casual and sporadic use of judgment by plebiscite on an issue imperfectly defined, regarding which large sections of the electorates had only the most languid interest. It would degrade the Commons to the level of a debating Society- He asked: Will the Tories submit tariff reform to the referendum?