BRITISH POLITICS

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9674, 23 December 1909, Page 5

BRITISH POLITICS

LORDS V. COMMONS. WHAT LORD ST. AIDWYN THINKS. WHY HE WAS SILENT. United Press Liasociation—By Electric Telejraph Copyright. Received December 22, 8.5 a.m. LONDON, December 21. Lord St. Aldwyn, a former Chancellor of the Exchequer, in a letter to a correspondent, says he has been silent because nothing he could bay would have prevented the rejection of the budget. He did not care to argue against his own side. "Th r J wisest Conservative leaders in the past have always held that the only ground on ™hich the Lords can properly reject a finaica measure is 'tacking.' 1 see nothing actual in the proposals of the Bill so foreign to the finance of the year aa to justify its rejection on the ground of 'tacking,' nor can the proposals, whatever their advocates have said, been properly described as Socialism or revolution. The imposition of small duties on imported articles that have a large consumption would have been financially sounder and leas injurious to the working classes than some of the exces9ive direct taxation included in the Budget." Lord St. Aldwyn concluded, "It would be wrong to infer from my silence that I am on ths Government's side The Government now propos s to make the Lords impotent, except for twelve months, and then Home Rule, disandowment of the Church, universal suffrage, and every other Radical nostrum would be passed into law by a caucus Government I majority in a gagged House of Corny-. mons. This would mean despotism) under the mask of popular government; therefore, 1 advife the electors to vote against the Government."

LABOUR MEMBERS.

TRADE UNION LEVIES. Received. December 22, 8.55 a.m. LONDON, December 21. With regard to the case the Amalgamated Society of Railwayman ver sus Osborne, regarding the legality of trades union levies for payment'ot Labour members of the House of Commons, Lord Halsbury delivered the House of Lords' unanimous judgment"'which affirmed- the s decision o the Appeal Court against the payment.

Lord Macnaughon, concurring in Lord Halsbury's remarks, held that there was nothing in the Trades Un>'on Acts conferring the powers of collecting and for poliical purposes. Lord James of Hereford declared that the application of money for the maintenance of a member whose act was regulated by'a rule*requiring membership of the Labour Party was ultra vires. Lorl Atkinson held that such application was oppressive. Lord bhaw considered the imposing conditions on a member of 'the House of Commons was contrary to public policy. Received December 22, 10 35 p.m. LONDON, December 22. Mr Asquith (Prime Minister) at Liverpool ridiculed Earl Cawdor's nerve shaking picture of German occupation of Belfast. After careful inquiry he could say that the Navy was able to maintain supremacy of the seas not only this year but in the years betoie us. Should necessity fleet was feble t> guarantee integrity of our shores, protection of our commerce, and the inviolability of the Empire. He did not believe that the Army and Navy had been better organised and equipped since the close_of Napoleonic wars. Earl Cawdor, speaking at Rochdale, said Germany was building warships rapidly, and working overtime while England was sitting still wi'h hands folded doing nothing.