THE VETO BILL.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1171, 5 July 1911, Page 7

THE VETO BILL.

MR,' ASQUITH'S INTENTIONS. By Telegraph—Press Association-Oopyriehl London, July 3. In the House of Commons, Mr. J.. C. Wedgwood, Liberal member for New--1 castle, asked the Prime Minister whether, in view of the Government's, defeat 1 in the House of Lords, it would withdraw the l'nrliament Bill and recommend tho creation of peers, in order that the will of the people might prevail. Mr. Asquith replied that the" Government did not intend to withdraw the Bill. A UNIONIST FORECAST. ' .The "Morning Post," in a recent ar- • tide, said:—"By making what amounts to a public admission of their incompetence, tho peers have merely rendered it easier for the- Government to carry out their 1 revolutionary policy. . . . Tho Parliament Bill will be pressed forward at all costs, s and it is difficult to see how it can bo ef- . fectively resisted by tho House of Lords ■ wheu its members have gooo out qf their • way (o declare that only a small portion of their number are worthy of a placo in what tho Unionist leaders seem to think is a properly constituted Second Chamber. When tho peers themselves j confess that they aro not fitted to dis- . chargo legislative duties, how can they . expect thtTr speeches and votes to command any authority in the future? From ( 1 the opening cf tho constitutional struggle . the Unionist party have boon handicappod by bad leadership. ... If changes wcro thought to bo necessary in an iusti- • tutinn which had existed for many centuries and which liad long proved itsolf unequalled among tho Second Chambers of the. world, they should have been undertaken with tho utmost care and caution. . . . The Government •will not acI cent Lord Lansdowno's Bill, but they will take note and make use of its admissions, '• and after swooping away the veto of tho r peers they mean to creato a new but II powerless Second Chamber on a purely il democratic basis.