IMPERIAL POLITICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 192, 3 January 1913, Page 5

IMPERIAL POLITICS.

HOME RULE BILL. Bj Cable—Press Association —Copyright. London, January 1. Mr. Hope's amendment to the Home Rule Bill was defeated bv 288 votes to 15. Sir Rufus Isaacs said that every legitimate safeguard had been taken to protect Britain in war time. Sir E. Caison (moved the amendment to the Homo Rule Bill to exclude Ulster from the provisions of the measure. He denied making a compromise, but said H would be a danger to drive Ulster and turn the existing constitution into a loathsome one, which would be abhorred. Mr. Asquith replied that the amendment would wreck the Bill. To exelude several Nationalist counties was not democratic legislation. To accept the claim of a section of Ulster was to veto the Bill.

A HEATED DEBATE. PARTY RECRIMINATIONS. Received January 2, 11.5 p.m. London, January 2. Sir E. Carson said that Ulster claimed to stand where she was. She claimed to have done her best under the union, and claimed to have succeeded under it. It was for -the Government if it could to justify the turning out of Ulster. He pressed the Government to say whether they contemplated, exercising force that they would never have dreamed of applying to Natal if she had refused to join the South African Union. If the Government had made up their minds, he begged them to remember that no one could measure where the forces of disorder, if unloosed, would fjnd their objective. Mr. Asquith said that he was unable to speculate or lay down contingent policies. He did not believe that when Ulster realised the «olid protection the Bill afforded that she would do other than accept the Imperial decision. He asked if the Bill were submitted to the electorates what, then, would be the attitude of the Unionists. Mr. Redmond said that he was not influenced by the danger of civil war. The feeling was quite as strong over the 1869 Church Disestablishment Act, but nothing happened. He was prepared to go to any limit to meet the opposition, provided it was not inconsistent with national self-government. Mr. Bonar Law said that disaster would follow carrying the Bill against Ulster's will. The Government, in the event of war. would be gambling on the possibility of the whole Nationalist feeling in Ireland changing. The danger would be lessened if there were two subordinate Parliaments. He advocated an amendment making it permissive for any country to remain outside Parliament. He believed that the loyalists would rather be ruled by a foreign country than -by the Nationalists. If the Government would submit the Bill to the country he personally—and he believed lie spoke for the Opposition—would not encourage any form of Ulster's resistance, but if the Government forced the Bill he would assist Ulster's resistance.

Mr. Winston Churchill said that Mr. Bonar Law made a surprising statement when he said that the loyalists preferred foreign rule. Sir E. Carson interjected: "Rather than be governed by moonlighters." Mr. Churchill: This is the latest Tory threat: "Ulster would secede to C!ermany." (Uproar.)

Mr. Churchill, amid constant heated interruption, taunted Mr. Bonar Law on his latest step in Imperial statecraft. He declared that no Oppositionist believed that the amendment was workable. ,It proposed to mete out to the Catholics of Ulster exactly the treatment which the Opposition regarded as cruel and unfair to Protestants elsewhere. The Unionist veto by violence was unjustified. The Bill had to be massed three times, and long before the Irish Parliament could legislate oppressively there would be a general election. The people had a clear constitutional remedy without resort to threats of violence.

The amendment was negatived by 294 to 197.

LABOUR PARTY DISCIPLINE. London. January 1. The agenda paper of the Labour Party Conference, which opens on January 29. contains recommendations to ensure the loyalty of Labour members by withholding Whips temporarily or permanently.

SIR WILLIAM LEVER'S OFFER. London. January 1. In the Hnu=e of Common-:. Mr. A=quith. in reply to a question, stated that Sir William Lvver had offered Stafford House to the nation on certain conditions. which the Government was considering. Mr. Moore asked whether Mr. Asquith would say how much the Government was giving Sir William Lever by the concession in West Africa.

Mr. Asquith remarked that the ojues tion was improper.

WELSH DISESTABLISHMENT. London. January I.' A deputation of Wel-h Radicals protested against the concessions under the Disestablishment Bill. Mr. M'Kenna. replying. affirmed that they were matters of justice, not concessions.

The deputation was so incensed by the reply that its member* refused to communicate it, to the press.