BRITISH POLITICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 February 1922, Page 5

BRITISH POLITICS.

SPEECH BY LORD CHANCELLOR. COALITION DEFENDED. By Telegraph.—Press Assn. —Copyright. London, Feb. 1. Lord Birkenhead, addressing the Conservatives and Coalition Liberals in London, said: “We must wait a little longer before definitely sounding a note of jubilation regarding Ireland. Members of the Government who signed the treaty still believed in it being a permanent cure. Messrs. Collins and Griffiths justified the confidence placed in them. Sir J.ames Craig shows himself to be a man in the first rank of statesmanship.” Referring to the Geddes report, it was ludicrous to suppose there had been the slightest hesitation on the part of the Government to present it. The Government had grounds for deviation from the committee’s recommendations, and would publish a report to Parliament and the country with reasons for that deviation.

Lord/ Birkenhead defended the Coalition, which they were told was menaced daily as decrepit, moribund, decaying, and* dishonest. As far as those occupying important, positions in the Coalition were concerned they had not the slightest intention of expiring, they even proposed independently and impudently to prolong their existence if the nation wilted. He charged the Labor leaders with playing a part of abject poltroonery. They did not denounce traitors and the present position in the country was largely due to the extremists’ action.

Referring tc the association between Lords Grey and Cecil, he said one was entitled to his judgment on Lord Grey’s acts during his Foreign Secretaryship. Lord Grey was responsible -for diplomacy which was unable to meet the European situation before the outbreak, of war, when he had an army which was unable to meet attacks. It was not the fault of men like Lord Grey that England was not to-day carrying out the decrees of Germany. lx>rd Grey was responsible for passing the Home Rule Act, forcibly compelling Ulster to enter the All Ireland Parliament, which would have led to civil war in Ireland, if there had been no European war. He criticised Lord Grey’s actions in regards to the offer of Greece to come into the war. If that officer had been accepted the war would have been shortened. There were respects in which a Parliament Act should not stand and could not be permitted to stand by any combination of parties, of which they continued to be adherents. There should be one great reform in the personnel of the House of Lords. He did not favor the abolition of the hereditary principle or leaving the Crown, the only hereditary institution. There must be a great reduction in the numbers of the Lords. He believed the justification for a certain coalition in'l9l6 still existed today. He could not accept the view that the Conservatives alone aught to form a Ministry unless marked divergence of opinion existed between the Conservatives and the Coalition Liberals who had helped them to carry on hitherto. He opposed such a scheme on the grounds both of gratitude and expediency. —Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.

UPPER HOUSE REFORM. MR. CHAMBERLAIN SPEAKS OUT. Received Feb. 3, 8.50 p.m. Feb. 2. Mr. Chamberlain, speaking at the Primrose League banquet, said that the reform of the House of Lords was the only outstanding question. The Conservative Party desired to treat it in a broad spirit. He saw no difficulty in settling it on a sound, constitutional basis in agreement with their Liberal allies. Economic and financial issues • imperatively demanded the nation's concentrated efforts, so new political programmes were out of place at such a time. It was a moment calling for the abandonment of animosities, and -for the union of all good men to rescue the world from the dire peril wherein it stood. Yet, at this moment. Viscount Grey and Mr. Asquith were calling on all the ragtail and bobtail of the dissentient Liberal Party to resume party strife on the old lines. — Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.