DEMOCRATIC WHITEWASH.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 68, 21 March 1910, Page 5

DEMOCRATIC WHITEWASH.

PREMIER ON LORDS DEBATE. THE VETO MUST GO. RATIONAL CHAMBER WANTED (By Cable.— Association.—Copyright* LONDON, March 19. The Prime Minister (Mr. Asquith) in a speech at Oxford last evening, said that the general election had created a position unforeseen by all parties It i was only after hesitation that he and his colleagues had concluded that it was their duty to remain in office. The Budget must be pressed forward with promptitude and dispatch, in order to set right the unexampled financial confusion that had been produced by the action of the House of Lords. A rationally constituted second chamber was desirable, not a chamber overwhelmingly and undisguisedly partisan. The debate on reform in the House of Lords, Mr. Asquith continued, showed a desire that the ancient structure should be disguised with a coat of democratic whitewash. The demand of the Liberals was for a second chamber rebuilt on a democratic basis, thus preventing a chronic deadlock of legislative power. The country had declared itself predominantly Liberal, and the absolute veto must go. The "Times," commenting on Mr. Asquith's speech, says: "Mr. Asquith and his friends mean to preserve the second chamber as a sham and a screen. That is a new democratic conception of English Constitutional Government." Several papers state that the germ of the Government's proposals for the reform of the Lords will he found in clause C 3 of the South Africa Act. In a speech delivered at Manchester, Mr. Winston Churchill (Home Secretary) said: "T am not frightened by the idea of a single chamber, and I do not attach the importance to the question which some do. If a second chamber is to be established in the future it must be based on the votes of the great masses of the wage-earning population." The Government's resolutions, ho added, would bo tabled on Tuesday. They were those of the late Prime Minister (Sir Henry Campbell-Bannennan), strengthened by Mr. Asquith in one or two particulars. The debate on the resolutions would commence on the 29th inst. The Budget, Mr. Churchill declared, had been misrepresented and misunderstood in Ireland, but the House of Lords must be made to swallow both the veto and the Budget. He did not believe Parliament would come to an untimely end through the Budget failure MYSTERY AND EVASION. ', (Received 8.35 a.m.) LONDON, March 20. Tho "Irish Independent" complains that Mr. Asquith's speech contains mystery and evasion. Before mutual understanding is possible the Nationalists must know what the Pfctnicr means. EXCHEQUER BOND ISSUE. LONDON, March 20. ■ The Government is issuing £21,000,000 of 3} per cent Exchequer bonds at 99£, with five years' currency.