IMPERIAL POLITICS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2705, 8 January 1910, Page 5

IMPERIAL POLITICS.

THE FIGHT GETS HOTTER.

LORD ROSEBERY AGAINST THE

GOVERNMENT

United Phess Association — CopvnianT LONDON, Jan. 6.

Lord Rosebery, in reply to a. correspondent, declares that if ' elected he wilt vote against the Government, because lie is opposed to them on three, out of four of their main issues.

Lord Crewe, speaking at> Hyde, stated that if the electorate confirmed the House of Lords’ action, the Lords would claim the power of amending finance, and their grip upon the country would be permanently fixed. Mr. Chamberlain, in a letter to a unionist candidate at Bath, says:—“l am following events with great interest, as it is, I believe, the last time we shall have the real opportunity of securing tariff reform. The Master of Elibank, a Liberal candidate for Midlothian, in an address to the electors, says that owing to the Lords’, action it is necessary to place upon the statute book an Act to ensure that in the matter of taxation the will of the people’s representatives is supreme.

Mr. Winston Churchill, in a speech at Dundee, advocated nationalisation of the railways. He added.: “It would be an unthrifty operation to nationalise the land under the terms which the landlords would ask.” He favored payment of members. Lord Milner, at Wolverhampton, said: “We tariff reformers stand for the whole policy of taxation of foreign imports and food duties as proposed by Mr. Chamberlain.”

LORD LANSDOWNE’S GREAT

SPEECH

Lord Lansdowne added: “In the background is the Irish party, watching ready to sell itself to those who pay the highest political price for assistance. Are you, with all these conditions, prepared to hand to the Commons the direction of affairs of a great empire with India and the dominions overseas, the question of naval and military defence 1 , finance, and all the great questions which should be naturally deliberately dealt with by your Parliament?” He quoted approvingly the Rosebery Committee’s recommendations. He contended that reform of the House cf Lords should be the work of both political parties. It was not altogether a creditable incident when a committee was set up that Liberal peers refused to participate or assist in providing a solution of the question.

A GRAVE CRISIS. Lord Lansdowne continued: “Whatever people may think about the Budget or the House of Lords, they will not allow any Government a free hand to turn us over to the untempered l mercy of a. chance majority in the House of Commons and of Ministers happening to control 1 the majority.” He argued that there never was a moment in the history of the country when such an experiment would be fraught with niore danger. “When the political pendulum swings with alarming rapidity,” he declared, “we might find ourselves as after last election with a House of Commons wherein there are over 300 members who have never sat in Parliament before, and consequently have no special acquaintance with public affairs. We might also have a raw Cabinet. More-

over, freedom of discussion in the House of Commons nowadays is unprecedently curtailed.” The Committee’s recommendations (continued' 'Lord Lansdowne) would have given a very compact and efficient House. He opposed going much further, because he would always believe in a preponderating power in the House of Commons, “and if you set,up a House of Lords fortified by some process of election and otherwise placed in a position similar to the House of Commons, the House of Lords would claim what it floes not now claim, coordinate power with the popular House.” Proceeding, he declared that the Lords opposed the Budget on that account, because they did not wish the country to he switched 1 off tariff reform and switched on to another policy which the Lords believed to he suicidal. He added, “Tariff reform is the only .system capable of maintaining industrial pre-eminence.”

PEERS ON THE STUMP HAVE BAD

TIME.

Many of the peers stumping the country are not experienced talkers, and' are much heckled at the different meetings. In some instances they get a hearing which is unobjectionable, hut in other cases they are subjected to rough “chaff.” Lord Rothschild, speaking at Liverpool, declared' that when the diamond trade was brisk there was no unemployment. ISSUES AGAINST SOCIALISM. Lord Rosebery, in a letter to a correspondent added that the issues were against Socialism, which the Socialists recognised as being inherent in the Budget. He favored a reformed second chamber, and opposed anything likely, to lead to an Independent Irish party. MR BALFOUR AND THE EIORDS. (Received, January 8, 12.25 a.m.) LONDON, Jan. 7Mr Balfour, speaking at Ipswich, made a strong defence of the tariff reform. Regarding, the question of the House of Lords he said that ho did not want, a democracy ruled by a second

CABLE NEWS.

chamber, but freed by a second' chamber, and enabled to control- the country’s destinies, whereas the Government would’ make them slaves to a single chamber. Mr Balfour also advocated reform of the House of Lords.