IMPERIAL POLITICS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 180, 29 January 1912, Page 5

IMPERIAL POLITICS

MR. BONAR LAW. A DENUNCIATORY SPEECH. FAUST AND MEPHISTOPHELES. CHARGES OF CORRUPTION. By Cable —Press Association--Copyright. Received 28, 5.5 p.m. London, January 27. Mr. Bonar Law, leader of the Unionist Party, addressed a packed and enthusiastic meeting in the Albert Hall. He said the Government could not keep going at the present pace. The result would be either destruction of the Government or the ruin of the country. The Cabinet played Faust to Mr. Redmond's Mepliistopheles, and now called upon him to redeem his bond. Disestablishment was an act of destructive violence. It appeared the Unionist freetrader must choose between tariff reform and Lloyd-Georgism. The country ha 4 had enough of the present Government. The lane had been long, but the turning was visible. Failure and incompetence, .said Mr. Bonar Law, marked every step of the wild men who control the Radical Party. The people trusted Sir H. Campbell Bannerman, but they did not trust the present Premier, who was being driven, without resistance, faster down the slope. There was never a whisper of competent criticism on the Government i benches. Critics were promptly collared and made peers or knights or front benchmen. Wales had thirty members, and eighteen had been honored with gifts ranging from a peerage to a job. The L&bor Party had lost its influence because it was in the Government's pocket. On the other side, continued Mr. Law, the Government had sold the constitution, and found themselves in the Nationalists' pocket. There had been tremendous transformations without any explanation. Before Christmas Mr. Winston Churchill had had enough of Stepney scenes, and gentle shepherds, and had gone to the Admiralty. Mr. McKenna had had enough of Archer Shee and Lord Charles Beresford. Both desired to begin a new leaf. Lord Haldane's method of strengthening the regulars, said the speaker, was by a reduction of 20,000 men. He/had similarly reduced the auxiliaries by 30,000.' All the troops were armed with weapons inferior to those of other nations. ' While not joining the senseless attack on Sir Edward Gre t V by his own press, it was a fact, said the leader of the Unionists, thaf the Morocco incident ended to the advantage of France, while we got all the ill-will. We drifted to the verge of war because responsible ministers led foreign nations to believe the Government would never assert its rights by force. Mr. Lloyd George's Mansion House speech, continued the speaker* saved us from v.;'.!' but it accentuated Germany' 3 ill-will. It would require a generation of sane statesmanship to live it down. The Radicals had increased the national expenditure to the extent of £40,000,000. Jluich of it was spent upon a swarm of new officials, numbering nearly six thousand, half of whom were appointed without competition. Revolutionary governments were always corrupt governments. Capital was leaving the country to an extent unknown/ in previous history. There I seemed no bottom to the drop in consols. The Government had hitherto been preparing machinery for its destruction, which would conic into operation next | session. The Premier told them woman's suffrage would be a national disaster, yet expressed his willingness to perpetrate that disaster. | He asked, "Has ever British statesmanship fallen so low?" He believed "the Government was already in difficulties over a, constructive Bill acceptable to Ireland and possibly to England. "What humbugs• these people are!" said Mr. Law. " They employ trickery and methods of the artful dodger. Their methods last session were a disgrace to the Government and a degradation to the House of Commons." TARIFF REFORM. Londoii, January. 26. Mr. Ramsay McDonald, M.P., presiding at a meeting in the Birmingham Town Hall, appealed to the Labor, leaders to go forward until the red flag of liberay and socialism superseded the skull and crossbones of the tariff reformer. Mr. llarcourt, speaking at Bacup, said that no one at the Imperial Conference suggested that the fiscal system should be altered for their profit, to the injury of the working classes of Britain. If Britain wqs in danger of losing the colonies without a tariff, then she would lose them anyway, because whatever causes of friction might exist with the colonies, and he knew oi none, they would be increased a hundredfold by haggling between State and State and trade and trade, and through conflicting interests. WELSH DISESTABLISHMENT. ' London, January 26. Mr. McKenna lias inaugurated the Welsh Disestablishment campaign in Queen's Hall. Ue announced that, sub- ! ject to existing life interests, the Government proposed to disendow the Church to the extent of £IBI,OOO per annum, and to devote the money to national purposes. Suffragettes frequently interrupted, and were expelledWOMEX'S VOTES. Received 28, 0.0 p.m. London, January 27. A suffrage deputation interviewed Mr. Haicourt at W aterfoot, Lancashire, and stated it was dissatisfied with his. opposition to women's franchise, and promised to make his life miserable.