BRITAIN.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 April 1916, Page 5

BRITAIN.

COMPULSION CRISIS. ■PEESS COMMENTS. London, April 21. The Westminster Gazette says that Mr. Asquith is safe of a majority in the House of Commons if he sticks to his guns and takes a definite stand against the compulsion of unattested married men, even if all the compulsionists leave the Cabinet. Newspapers generally approve the method of avoiding a crisis. Though they admit that the secret session is a step in the darkness they point out that the method is well established on the Continent. The Daily Mail states that it is reported that the Government has decided to introduce a Compulsion Bill next week with the proviso that it will not be put into operation until special resolutions of Parliament, which will be moved directly the yield of new recruits is 'below a certain total. The Government intends to use the guillotine, and the Bill will thus be nassed quickly. The Daily News s"-'s the dangers of a secret session are manifest. ,i is. certain to give currency to the wildest rumours, but possibly there is no other way to secure the Government the authority without which its existence would lie imperilled. It adds that Mr. Lloyd George impressed on the Cabinet the example of President Lincoln's Enrolment Bill in 1863. Mr. Henderson's formula was finally adopted. It does not differ in essentials from Mr. Lloyd George's policy. • , ./

MR. LLOYD GEORGE. PILLORIED IN THE PRESS. Received April 23, 5.5 p.m. London, April 2-2. Mr. A. G. Gardiner, editor of the Daily News, publishes in that journal a scathing open letter to Mr. Lloyd George. He says: '.'Your friends have been silent over-long, and they have pretended not to have known many things and refused to see your figure flitting about behind the screens. They agreed to talk about Lord Northcliffe and Dalziel, when in reality they meant Lloyd George. They have done this because •ttiey remembered their associations and knew the strain upon an emotional mind like yours; but the time for concealment has passed. This week's crisis is the culmination of your activities, and the country has to choose betWeen Mr. Asquitfo and yourself. Doubtless in the heat of an overwrought atmosphere you, in your mind, honestly believe yourself to be 'the man of destiny,' and that Mr. Churchill and Lord Northcliffe share this impression with you. Your brilliant success, fascinating though wayward and superficial personality, and casual uninstructed habit of mind have encouraged this belief, but democracy is the only vehicle in which you never had faith, and now you seek for ten months of a Napoleon's power. ... "As you once said to me, you never understood trade unions. Mr. Asquith sought to carry Labor witli him, but you are impatient of democracy, and have been seized with a sort of apocalyptic vision of yourself as the Saviour of Europe. You, above all, were the chief cause of the Liberal Government's establishment of a coalition. Throughout yem have been the friend of Lord Northcliffe, and on terms of close intimacy with- some of the Government's chief assailants, and the country shall not choose between Mr. Asquith and yourself in ignorance."

QUITE NECESSARY. FRENCH OPINION OF COMPULSION. Received April 23, 5.5 p.m. Paris, April 22. A majority of Frenchmen would hail the introduction of compulsion in Britain with intense satisfaction, believing that it would be a decisive factor ifi the Allies' triumph. M. Clemenceau says that it must be introduced immediately, as time is of supreme importance. M. Joseph Reinach says tlat compulsion would produce a deep impression in Germany. ;

ANZAC DAY. • . «_ MR. MASSEY'S MESSAGE. CELEBRATIONS AT HOME. Received April 24, 12.45 a.m. London, April 23. Mr. Massey's message for Anzac Day, to the Weekly Dispatch, is: "New Zealand is more fclian ever determined to stand by Britain and her allies against a cruel and mercilessly vindictive foe." The Weekly Despatch says tliat this, expresses the splendid spirit which, throughout twenty months of war, has unfailingly inspired all the great oversea dominions. Sir Tliomtus Mackenzie says that wlier-' 1 ■ever a New Zealander may be on the 25th he will think oi the men who planted the flag of the Dominion on so high a place in sight of the world. The day ■will be observed throughout all ages in memory of the men who are fighting so ■bravely and dying so devotedly in the •greatest of causes. Newspapers emphasise London's desire to be associated with the Australians and New Zealanders in the celebration of their sons' sacrifices op behalf of the Empire, by cheering the survivors of the Gallipoli ordea]. Major Dawson will lead the New Zealanders in the procession. Te Rangihiroa (Dr. Buck), wrote to Sir Thoa. Mackenzie: "I ani proud that the Maoris are able to do their share. I would sooner see every Maori die fighting according to our best traditions, than live in inactivity in New Zealand." THE SECRET SITTING. W London, April 21. An Order-in-Council will be issued making it penal to publish the facts disclosed at Tuesday's sittings. A CHAPLAIN GETS THE V.C. London, April 21. The Victoria Cross has been awarded to Edward Mellish, Army Chaplain, who repeatedly crossed an area, swept by shell and machine-gun fire and brought in ten badly wounded men, of whom three were killed while he was dressing their wounds. He brought in another twelve next day, returned witji volunteers on the third day, and rescued the remaining' wounded*

IPRIVATE LONSDALE'S CASE. ieeived April 24, 12.55 a.m. London, April 23. Private Lonsdale, an ex-tramcar conductor of Leeds, who was sentenced to death, and then reprieved, for striking a gunner in a German prison camp, has 'been officially informed that he will be ■released at the end of the war, owing to his good conduct, , .. A PEACE RUMOR. CONCERNING AUSTRIA. London, April 21. There are persistent rumours in financial circles in Holland that the Austrian Govxrnment, in consequence ol the grave domestic situation, is seriously thinking of abandoning its share in the war. The Morning Post's Budapest correspondent states that Count Amlraasy, commenting oil Herr von BethmannHolhveg's recent speech, said that this was the first official German feeler for peace, If Frenchmen read it without •bias they would see that Sermany wanted to safeguard her frontiers and did not ask for the annexation of Belgium, but merely that it might not come a bulwark for the Anglo-French forces whence they would swoop on Germany. The question of an indemnity from France had been dropped an;l, as regards colonies, Germany considers it will only be possible to save a few. The speech leaves a door open tor coun-ter-demands and is fraught with possibility, carrying the germ of future developments and as the basis of further aigument, affords an outline whereby peace may be reached.