IN THE LORDS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 35, 9 February 1917, Page 6

IN THE LORDS.

WAR MATTERS DISCUSSED. HEAVY TOLL OF PEERS. AN EMPIRE CONSTITUTION. UNDER-SEA OUTRAGES. (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) I **» .... (Received 11.15 a.m.) jsff.-; • LONDON, February 8. In the House of Lords the Chancellor (Lord Buckmaster) read tbe King's Speech. Earl Stanhope, in moving the Address-in-Reply, said that the enemy's troops •urged forward by the Prussian jackboot had trodden under foot every law, divine and human. The Belgians, Armenians, and Serbians cried out against the murderous tyranny. The war had aroused the Empire to a spirit of grim determination such as had never been witnessed in the history of the race. Lord Bathcreedan seconded " the motion. The Marquis of Crewe said that our superiority on the Western front justified the most sanguine hopes of larger operations in the spring. EARL CURZON SPEAKS. Earl Curzon declared that six peers, 129 peers' sons, and 62 heirs had been •killed in the war, and eijjht peerages were threatened with extinction. The House was like a House of mourning. The Imperial Conference, he added, was not planned for the purpose of constructing a brand new constitution for the Empire, a Nevertheless it was a great test, and a step forward in Empire evolution, namely, the recognition of relations with the Dominions on a basis of equality. They would hear the Domin- . ions' view--_ on constitutional and other (subjects, but there would not be sufficient time to frame a new constitution. This would be the first conference leading to a new Imperial constitution. The Dominions had not been invited as I la complimentary recognition of their part in the war, but they had been ■brought over for the purpose of helping in the prosecution of the war and the settlement of peace. The conference had been summoned with three objects, viz., J to arrange for increased vigour in the parrying on of the war, to discuss peace terms, and to discuss after-war questions 'such as demobilisation. I GERMAKY DENOUNCED. | Germany's monstrous new outrage, [continued Earl Curzon, proclaimed her an outlaw among nations. America, after a patience unexampled and unduly prolonged, had declared that she would have no further dealings with such an -unclean-thing. The moral judgment of the world had been delivered against Germany, and doubtless others would rfbUow President Wilson's .example. [There were others who would like to do

so.if they could. The German submarine campaign was an act of desperate -madness, but premeditated and organised. Therefore no one must underrate the peril of it. Possibly the enemy atrocities during the coming months would surpass anything .hitherto believed "possible. A real and terrible crisis of the war was approaching, and the Allies must be ready with all their resources.

IMPERIAL XDEAS.

EARL CURZON ON INDIAN LABOUR. A VERY CONTROVERSIAL UTTERANCE. ,_ii "' (The "Times.") ;i_». (Received 11.45 a.m.) LONDON, February 8. Earl Curzon, in the course of his speech in the House of Lords, said: " We have often spoken of the Dominions as sons and daughters, but they are now passing out of the stage of filial relationship into that of fraternal union. The coming conference may form a nucleus around which an Imperial constitution may be created." He looked to the representation of India as a means of reiimoving a misunderstanding hitherto prevailing in the Dominions. The idea that India was a dangerous and unhealthy competitor in the labour field had vanished on the battlefield. The Dominions i realised that the Indians were fellow- ! subjects with similar rights to their | own- We were approaching the supreme :and terrible times of the war, and he iwould counsel cool-headedness in view of ithe submarine campaign, for combating 'which the Government was devising vari:ous measures.