SOLDIERS' BONUS BILL.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 116, 17 May 1924, Page 7

SOLDIERS' BONUS BILL.

VETOED RY PRESIDENT. ! LEADERSHIP lir TJ.S.A. (By Cable.—Press Association.—Copyright.) WASHINGTON, May 16. Tlie President, Mr. Calvin Coolidge, has vetoed tlie Soldiers' Bonus Bill. [He estimates that the payment of the ! bonuses proposed would * commit the ; nation to an average annual expenditure of £22,800,000 for the next twenty years. After that the Government would be obliged to sell £500,000,000 worth of bonds. This might jeopardise the value ;of Federal securities. j The outstanding advocates of the bill • have announced that an attempt will be made to repass it over the Presidential i veto. On its original passage it received , more than the necessary two-thirds ( vote in both Houses. , The tide of enthusiasm for the bill |ran so high after Mr. Coolidge's veto J was received, that insistent demands for jan immediate vote were made in tlie ! House of Representatives. I In vetoing tlie measure Mr. C'oolidjje , ■ lias followed the example of the late : President Harding. Congress is likely ito reconsider the bill with a view to repassing it because many of the mem-, bers of each House openly espouse its provisions and are apprehensive as to ! the opinion of their constituencies at tlie , cn=imisr election. 1 Political observers regard the fate of the bill as a supreme test of Mr. Cool- ; idgp's leadership of his party. Tlie President's election campaign manager's are confident of his success, liowever, owing .to his recent series of overwhelming vie- , tories in the primary elections in important- spctinns of the country.— (A. and N.Z. Cable.)