IMPERIAL POLITICS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 136, 4 December 1911, Page 5

IMPERIAL POLITICS

THE INSURANCE BILL. By Cable—Press Association—Copyright. London, December 1. The General Federation of Trade Unions has strongly protested against the separate administrations of the insurance fund .in Scotland, Wales and Ireland. _ The leaders fear the disintegration of trade unionism by encouraging Scottish and Welsh committees to insist on controlling their own bu«'ness. Medical men declare that Mr. LloydGeorge's proffered amendments are utterly inadequate. Five hundred and twenty-eight thousand protests against the Insurance Bill have reached members of Parliament. HOSPITAL OPPOSITION. VIGOROUS SPEECH BY LORD LANSDOWNE. Received 3, 5.10 p.m. London, December 2. A conference of two hundred hospitals carried a resolution that existing treatment cannot be maintained if their income is diminished, due to the Insurance Bill. Sir Henry Burdett estimates that the voluntary hospitals will lose half their incomes. The newspapers indicate that the House of Lords will pass the Insurance Bill unamended, thus declining responsibility of the details. It is expected they •vill reject the Naval Prize Bill, embrac'•ig the Declaration of London, on the round that it is too important to be "'.ished. Lord Lansdownc, addressing 1240 delegntes of the Liberal and Unionist Council at Derby, said the Government was embarked on a frenzied career of revolutionary legislation. Having broken the Constitution, they were forcing revolutionary measures which the country had "ot considered and had not approved. They were guilty of gross and intolerable usurpation of power, and scattered public money lavishly. Thcv multiplied appointments, and created a bureaucracy more numerous and more arrogant than the country had ever known. Lord Lansdowne believed the principle of contributory insurance was just and wise, but the Bill alarmed many important interests. He commented on Home Rule, especially Federal Home Rule, and said Mr. Birrell had been suggesting that a federation would ultimately include the dominions. Tt was absurd to think the great dominions would come in at the tail end of the hunt into a scheme prepared to suit Mr. Redmond's dictation. The first duty of the Unionists was to restore the Constitution and to continue Mr. Balfour's Irish policy.