Imperial Politics

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 211, 6 March 1914, Page 5

Imperial Politics

REBISTRIBUTION DISCUSSED. A COMMITTEE APPOINTED. 'WELSH CHURCH DISESTABLISHMENT. HOME RULE PROPOSALS. ®y Cable—"Press Association—Copyright Received 5, 11 p.m. London, -March 5. ; House of Commons agreed to Mr. El. :.'r Jones motion for a Select ComTC, "'* e to consider the question of reof seats. Mr. Long appealed to the Government to institute an independent enquiry so as to prevent the present suggestion of gerrymandered" constituencies. Mr. H. Samuel said the Government was willing to appoint a Minister on the Committee if the Opposition wou'.d join in an effort to formulate a fair scheme. It was hoped to settle the redistribution before the general election in 1915, if Parliament ran its normal course. Mr. Asquith received the organisers of the Welsh Non-Conformists' petition against disestablishment. He said the deputation had failed to supply any reason for their attitude, or to explain their objections to disendowment. There is little doubt that Mr. Asquith's Home Rule proposals will have Mr. Redmond's concurrence, though some Ministerialists have fears of the ""attitude of the Nationalist convention if called on to sanction the changes. London, March 4. The signatures to the Ulster appeal are increasing largely every day. HOME RULE PROBLEM. . A CONFERENCE ADVOCATED. Received 6, 12.10 a.m. London, March 5. Lord' Dunraven, in a letter to the Press, says that a fair chance of settlement is only obtainable by referring Mr. Asquith's proposasl to a conference on the lines suggested by Lord Loreburn. Coercion was impossible, exclusion was unthinkable, and a general election would be useless as a solution of the problem. Lord Hugh Cecil, in a letter to the Press, says that the difficulty in the way of a conference is insuperable. He draws an anology between Mr. Botha'.* action in South Africa, and possible happenings in Ireland, as creating two centres of sovereignty. He says. "No body can be blind to the outrageous scandal caused by the infliction of perpetual exile by a retrospective enactment. True sovereignty lies with the South African Parliament and Mr. Botha, not with the British Crown. Such are the consequences of Home Rule." MONEY-LENDERS' BILL. London, March 4. In the House of Lords, Lord Newton' 3 Money-lenders' Bill was read a third