IMPERIAL POLITICS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2683, 13 December 1909, Page 5

IMPERIAL POLITICS.

THE GENERAL ELECTION.

LIBERALS AND LABOR— FEIR, HARDIE IRRECONCILIABLE: 1

United Press Association—Copyright LONDON, Dec. 10.

Mr Keir Hardie said that so. much had been hoard of an alliance of the Li.beials and the Labor part-ythat it was necessary to emphasise the fact whatever the consequences, that an agreement or an alliance- was impossible. The Labor ip«rty!s object, he said, is a united uoiking class, so n$ to create a power that will one day bring SociaJism.lt can only achieve that by maintaining its independence unsullied. The object of Liberalism and Toryism is to keep Labor divided and landlordism :and capitalism supreme. THE LORDS—A. REFORM , PROPOSAL.^ Lord Robert Cecil, speaking at Black burn, suggested the reform of the House of Lords by the reduction of the number of hereditary peers and bishops, and the - Creation pfa hundred life peers, representing labor, capital, •science, and a rt. He proposed that representatives of other religious bodies should sit 'with the bishops, also the appointment of a number of peers ,by the Premier to represent prevailingpo. litical opinions. . • ;■ TARIFF REFORM. Mr Austen Chamberlain, speaking at Greetham, said that a Birmingham “Post” article had developed what in his opinion were the main, lines of tariff reform. The details must be a matter for the Government’s examination. Many were matters of negotiation with their kinsmen across the seas, and later, with, foreign Powers.

LLOYD-GEORGE’S LATEST UTTERANCE.

Mr Lloyd-George, addressing 8000 people at Carnarvon, denied that the Budget was socialistic. It merely gave justice and equality for all. Justifying the death duties and supertax, he said that beyond a certain point most of the wealth of Britain was the result, of a good deal of luck. Referring to the incremefit land tax he said the country was in need of money. The Government was looking to someone to pay It did not want to tax. food, industry, or enterprise. Therefore it decided to tax the man who got something which he had never earned and never produced, which, by no law of justice or fairness ought ever to have belonged to him. Liberals . had shown unutterable patience with the Lords for years —patience which'has never, been degenerating intoipusillanimity. A HYSTERICAL CHANCELLOR. Mr Lloyd George exhibited his Celtic temperament at Carnarvon, where after announcing that he would rtever forsake Carnarvon for Cardiff, was so much moved by his hearers’ enthusiasm that he burst into tears and resumed his seat without finishing his speech, wherein he had declared at the outset that neither Ireland nor Wales can ever obtain their rights except by “marching over the ruins of the Lords,” and adding, “when the Liberals win this fight there will be a new earth.”

BUDGET PROTEST LEAGUE DIS-

SOLVED.

The Budget Protest League has dissolved having attained-' its object. It issued’ 20,000,000 leaflets and 300,000 posters, and 4 arranged,/ for 3500 large meetings and many thousands of smaller meetings. The various organisations have amalgamated under the control of the Conservative office in London. . '

The Earl of Portsmouth, disapproving of the Budget, declines to’ assist the Liberal campaign. HOBART, Dec. 11.

Mr Will Crooks, on arriving here, was handed a cable, recalling him to England immediately.

NOTABLE SPEECH BY l THE ‘ /

PREMIER.

(Received December 12, 5.5 p.m.) LONDON, Dec. 11. The majority of the Cabinet and many Liberal Peers and Commoners supported Mr. Asquith at the Albert Hall in a crowded demonstrative gathering. Ten thousand people, all men, were present. Mr. Asquith said that last election the Liberals reckoned without the host, but were not going to make the mistake again. The Liberal party _ave now laid upon them the single task ot , -vindicating and establishing upon an : -unshakable., foundation the .principle ot ' representative government. „ , 6 < causes for which they had been fighti ing hung on this, including education, Welsh disestablishment, licensing, and women's suffrage.' The l»«er would Ee an ouen 9 uesti<?n . for thu Common on the next Reform BiU. JBespite the . deeply deplorable, suicidal excesses of a small section of; its advocates, the Government had no q burke the suffrage. r ' y- ySV.v!.? .... . ’ ' . .•- • .. '. . ; ~, -ji ' V f A/ PROMISE OF HOME y Ireland was still the one great failure of Briti^’ statesmanship. Spring on .behalf; of his colleagues, the • r only solution of the Irish,question was a iystem of self-government for purq y ’ Irish affairs,; which .would oxplicidy . , safeguard;the supreme authority of the Imperial Parliament. :The._prescn Government had been dijsa e .m vance from proposing this, so u ion, ' : '■ the Liberals’ , hands in the. new Parli a .

CABLE NEWS.

"i.r" ' ‘ - ' y . .i j: - tr ment would be perfectly free. Mr. Asquith continued: • “Old age was only, one of the hazards to which the in-, dustrial population was exposed. 'Sickness, invalidity, and unemployment are spectres always hovering on the horiJsoh.-; We believe that the time has come for the State to lend a helping hand. This was one of-the secrets of -the 1909 Budget. It was described as a Budget .' which looked beyond the 31st of next March.” • f r “THE LORDS’ VETO MUST GO.” Only once in living memory* had the House of Lords attempted to touch a single tax imposed by the Commons. They had now 'shattered the whole fabric of the year’s taxation. * Mr. Asquith quoted Mr. Joseph Chamberlain’s letter to Mr. Balfour’s Birmingham meeting to prove that the Lords’ manoeuvre wa.s to reject the Budget because it provided an effective substitde, a 'destructive substitute, to tariff reform. “I tell you plainly,” he continued, “I tell my countrymen outside, neither I nor any other Liberal Minister is going to submit again to ibe rebuffs and humiliations of the past four years. I favor the bicameral system. - I can see much practical advantage in a body impartially exercising powers 'of revision and amendment, . subject to proper safeguards, bfit the absolute veto must go. The Government demand authority to translate the f action of unwritten usage into a Parliamentary;■ Act, and authority to' place upon- the statute hook si recognition, explicit and complete, of the settled constitutional doctrine that it is beyond the province* of the Lofds to meddle With national finance. The will of tthe people, as deliberately expressed by their elected ' 'rqpresentatives, anust within the life of a single Parliament be made effective.” QUINQUENNIAL PARLIAMENTS. That, and the reduction of th© duration of Parliaments to five years, is the Liberal policy. I should not fear a four years’ term for Parliament.” Mr. Asquith concluded: “How do. we stand? I trust united, all sectional divisions well fused, combined in a common campaign against a com- | mon enemy. *We have' behind us the examples of the greatest apostles of democracy of our time—Gladstone »and Bright. We have in support of us the memories of the past, the need of the present, and the .hopes of the future. Let us quit ourselves like men.” ' Mr. Lloyd-George, in a brief speech, remarked: ‘‘The subtlest and most potent human weaknesses, quackery and snobbery, are arrayed against us, but we shall beat both.” -Mr.’ Winston Churchill said: “We have to smash the ..vefp up. If we work together, nothing can withstand us.” . ' MANIFESTO BY MR. BALFOUR. Mr. Balfour, in a manifesto to his constituents, says that the Government is claiming that the Commons, no matter how elected, should have uncontrolled power over every class of the community, without an appeal to the community. The present question is not whether the second Chamber could resist the people’s declared -wishes. In the United States, he pointed out, a two-thirds majority would be required for a measure, like the Budget! Moreover, the Senate, can reject, and the President veto, special taxation.

“A SINGLE CHAMBER CONSPIRACY.”

The present attack on the Lords is the culmination of - a long-drawn conspiracy. The Government, from the first, sought not to work the constitution, but to destroy it, making in effect a single Chamber,, practically like the Greeks. The Budget gave the Government-: a . good opportunity of so manoeuvring that', the House of Lords must either abandon the functions of a second Chamber or take a step which gave new life to the single Chamber plot, but the people will refuse to consider themselves insulted bybeing asked their opinion on the Budget, nor will they think that the Lords have gone beyond their duty in asking it. The House of Commons already.. possessed great powers .beyond those ofthe Lower Houses in the Republics of America and France, in some respects.; unexampled powers, but the Government desires that the; Commons should be independent, not only of the. Lords, but of the people also.-.* There could be no security that a single Chamber : would act according to-the will .of.tlleelectors. The present House of-Com-mons had been returned on the Chinese slavery cry, and could not be as- ;. sumed to represent the nation’s mind 'on the question of Socialism. A single Chamber was impossible in the gion of finance. ... If the need for money was to be used as a means for adopting instalments of a Socialist Budget, treating property not according to' its amount, but according to its origin, and. .as a means of - vindictivelyattacking political opponents, ..then the. people had 'the .right to" be That right never could have''been .ex-■ .ergised if the Peers had ; not tbehalf of . the people,:;the. pdvyers...entrusted to them.; . T' : :v THE HOUSE OF LORDS COULD BE : .IMPROVED.,-.. % -He 'would not say that change -was: not required by a modification, of the House of Lords or a referendum. The House'of Lords contained 4 fiqen of. the' first eminence in-all. branches/- He did not think it should be a. rival to. ,the House of Commons; : or completely elective,, but i its functions could be

C J[iLE. NEWS.

1% y~-y>y 7-'• -

improved. Referring to unemployment, Mr. Balfour urged tlie.; reform of tliq poor law.' Every member of the rqccnt .commission thereon considered that the present law might be “scrapped,” but State methods. •of dealing!Avith destitution would do little to promote labor; •

THE BENEFITS ! OF TARIFF REFORM.

He looked for tliat,to tariff reform. It would stimulate home industry, and it alone. It would contain codonial preference, would modify commercial treaties, and secure-the home producer against foreign competition. It was the first plank- in tlie Unionist platform. ' , ... 5 y ;■

GOVERNMENT LAND POLICY

CRITICISED.

He complained of the Government’s elusory policy of “back to the land.” Their methods discouraged private ownership, except in Ireland, by insisting that tenants should become the tenants of a public body. There was no fanner who would not prefer tenancy under one of Mr. Lloyd-George’s “Dukes.” 'At present he would say nothing about the navy. The 'situation was grave, :andr the future anxious. He did not think that .the public would forget or forgive the negligence which had encouraged tlie_ present rivalry in ship building, which all deplored.