ASQUITH AT SANDRINGHAM.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 272, 16 November 1910, Page 5

ASQUITH AT SANDRINGHAM.

SHORT SHARP FIGHT. WILL OF THE PEOPLE. (By Cable.—Press Association.—Copyright.) (Received 8 tun.) LONDON, November 15. Great excitement was caused to-day when it was announced that Mr. AsquitU would not meet Parliament to-day, and that he was visiting King George at Sandringham. In the House, Mr Lloyd George (Chancellor of the Exchequer)., in the absence of Mr. Asquith, stated that circumstances had arisen which rendered it undesirable to proceed with business to-day. Mr Asquith would make a statement on Thursday. He moved the adjournment of the House. Mr. Balfour suggested that the statement be deferred till Monday. Mr. Lloyd George offered Friday, and this was accepted. The "Times" says the abandonment of the business of the session has some obvious advantages, for the Government is confronted witli awkward questions like the taxation of Irish whisky, women's suffrage, and the Osborne judgment. It also deprives the country of considering the alternative reforms which the House of Lords was elaborating. BOLD, DRAMATIC STROKE. The "Chronicle" says before the elections begin a guarantee will have been asked and given that the will of the people, as declared at the polls, shall prevail. An immediate dissolution is a bold, dramatic stroke, such as the democracy loves. It prevents the total obscuration of the real issue and avoids Parliamentary embarrassmenis." The dissolution will be welcomed by traders and the commercial community, who dread the prolongation of political unrest. The "Daily News" urg?s single clause bills fixing the elections for one day and bringing the new register into operation on the Ist of December. The "Manchester Guardian," insisting on the need for elections in one day, considers the Lords are mutineers, in declining to obey the country's decisive victory of January. PRIDE'S PURGE. The "Pall Mall Gazette" says that Mr. Asquith has flung all his pledges to Parliament to the winds, and the country will be plunged into the turmoil of an election unprovoked by an adverse vote. If the programme is executed it will be an outrageous violation of the privileges of Parliament, unequalled since Cromwell invaded the Commons. Mr. Churchill, with characteristic impetuosity and unscrupulousness, was determined, with his letter, to get in the first blow. AN EXAMPLE 'WANTED. The "Wesminster Gazette" says the Government is compelled to dissolve because the Lords and Unionists decline to admit that the country decided more than the compulsory passing of the Budget. Several papers, including the "Times/ , support concentration on the constitutional issue. Lord Curzon, at Bristol, said: "It we preach union, for heavens sake let us set an example among ourselves."