The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16, 1910 THE BRITISH ELECTIONS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2719, 26 January 1910, Page 4

The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16, 1910 THE BRITISH ELECTIONS.

It seems evident that a. return to office will only spell the beginning of Mr Asquith’s political troubles. He has appealed t° the country on his budget and according to present indications the result will be a distinct reverse, for the remarkable change in the support given to Unionists candidates must be accepted as an indication that the plank of tariff reform has become much more acceptable to the British public than it was a few years ago. Even the appeal against the House of Lords can scarcely be said to have proved successful when the Liberal vote has been so tremendously reduced. Yet because of the alliance made by the Government with the Nationalists on the Home Rule question it would seem that Mr Asquith will be able, if he chooses, to still retain the reins of power. But at what a cost! He must inevitably he at the mercy of the Irish members, and the prospect of having his policy dictated by the Nationalists is probably quite as distasteful to the Prime Minister as it is to the country at large. Well may he echo the sentinients of the general who declared: “But a lew more victories like this and I §m undone.” It was possibly this reflection which induced him to repudiate, through the Government whip, any suggestion that he was absolutely pledged hand and foot to the policy, of the extreme Home Rulers. Unless there is a marked change in the nature of the polling that still remains to be done, Mr Asquith will find himself faced with a most arduous task ‘should he attempt to carry the main planks of the policy he has announced. To get his measures through the Commons he will have to command at every division a Solid vote of liis own party, as well as of the Irish, and possibly the Laborites as well. To secure such a combination will prove a heartbreaking undertaking, and one that will require more powers of diplomacy and statesmanship than the Prime Minister has yet evinced. It is difficult to .blind any common ground for such great diversity of interests. Mr Asquith cannot even put his Budget through again without the support of

the 'three divisions of his party. The Irish section will not give its support unless the Liberal leader gives a much more specific pledge oh the Home Rule question than he at present acknowledges, yet so soon as he gives it ho will forfeit the allegiance of that substantial section in his own party which is opposed to Home Rule. He cannot rely upon the Labor party in an emergency, for the first article in the creed of the Laborites is to trust neither Liberal nor Unionist. In politics they play a lone hand, and will not support Mr Asquith a moment longer than occasion suits. The various elements referred to may unite temporarily in a contest with the Lords, but on other subjects are scarcely likely to prove a happy family. Moreover, it must not be forgotten that once a Bill had passed the Commons the Lords would reject it with much less compunction than if it had commanded the support of three-fourths of the Commons, as has been the case in the last Parliament. On the other hand, it does not seem possible that any combination of circumstances can give the Unionists office as the result of the election. They may have .the largest individual following, but with the certain opposition of the Nationalists, and probably that of the Laborites, they could not keep office for a day. Altogether the situation is decidedly mixed, and it is not at all improbable, as Mr C. F. J. Masterman suggests, that another appeal to the country may' be made before many months are over.