Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1910. THE BRITISH ELECTIONS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10157, 29 November 1910, Page 4

Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1910. THE BRITISH ELECTIONS.

The elections which are how pending in Great Britain will be the most momentous in the history of the British nation. They will decide for all time' the constitutional rights of the people. It is plain that the Liberal forces will be arrayed solidly against the House of Lords, and that the people will be asked to declare in favour of a constitution which will give to the Cotamons the • supremo control of great national questions. On the other Ihaxd, the ; Unionists,- while admitting the necessity for a reform in the House of Lords, and the elimination of the political rights of heredity, will emphasise the peril which will attend the nation if its destinies are to be placed absolutely in the charge of a majority in the Commons. Upon the result of the struggle which is now taking place may depend, not ! only the future of Great Britain, but the entire fate of the Empire. If the House of Lords is wiped out, as Mr Lloyd-George and his colleagues would have it, what may be the result? Assuming, for the sake of argument, that the Liberals were returned at the coming polls with a substantial majority,'and were to insist upon the abolition of the House of Lords, as it most assuredly : would do, and the substitution of an elective Second Chamber, what might happen ? Five years hence there may be an election, as a result of which parties would be so evenly divided that the Nationalists, or some other minority faction, might control the legislation of the cotm-

try. What would bo. the result? The Second Chamber would be powerless to resist measures which might revolutionize the country and be attended with the direst consequences. Experience has* shown that, with the many important issves which constantly arise, the tenure of no Government is secure for more than a limited number of years, and that the only safeguard against hasty and revolutionary legislation is the. House of Lords. Abo}'sh the Lords, and the country would be in a slate of revolution in a month. In view of the great national importance attaching to the constitutional question, it would be well if other issues were abandoned for the time being, and that the electors wero asked to express a definite opinion upon the question of whether the House of Lords should, or should not be retained. It will be a grave national calamity if minor issues were to produce results which would involve the whole Empire, and for this reason, if for no other, ths result of the elections will b" awaited with keen anxiety.