The Dominion. SATURDAY, AUGUST 5, 1911. THE BRITISH POLITICAL PUZZLE.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1198, 5 August 1911, Page 4

The Dominion. SATURDAY, AUGUST 5, 1911. THE BRITISH POLITICAL PUZZLE.

Of all the crises with which modern political journalism lias had to deal, and in which the people of ■Groat Britain and the British dependencies have had to take some interest. the crisis that began with the rejection of the 1909 Budget is the most extraordinary. It is a crisis perpetually deferred. Three months ago, six, seven, eight, nine, any number of months ago, everything seemed to invite the public to gather in a hurry to hear, the crash as the House of Lords came down; and still the climax is in the air. AVe were tolcl that on last Monday week Mr.' Asquith hadgiven the Peers a single week in which to make up their minds. The week of grace has elapsed, and Mr. Asquitii has done notnjng. The Commons have not considered the amendments, but arc expected to do so next week. The public will now be surprised if they do, or if anything definite is done before the present session ends. \Vc pity the commpn man who endeavours to reconcile with the extraordinary series of delays, silences, shouts and further delays, the fiery and seemingly final declarations made on behalf of the (Jovernment. To-day's telegrams are of special interest to the New Zealand public from the prominence that has been given at Home to statements made here by the Nationalist agents who toccntly visited this country. It was noted by us at the time as a rather extraordinary thing that Mil. liunsiokd, junior, and his colleagues should have assured our people that the Kino was in alliance with Mn. Ascsumt against the "reactionaries" and that lie had received definite

guaranUos; and it now appears that , these gentlemen were stating as fact ' what c\>n Mr. John Redmond lias had to admit w«:s pure invention. The Master of Elibimk, wc are told to-day, has denied on behalf of the Government that the ; Prime Minister's dealings with tho King had been communicated to anybody, and Mr. John Redmond has also denied that any information was given to him. That, the Government expects to settle tho Constitutional question before the adjournment of the present session a fortnight hence appears to be indicated by Mil. Llcyd-George's statement, but the final act has suftci'cd so many postponements that it is still possible that the session may end without a settlement. In the meantime a majority of the Unionist Peers, while determined not to cast away their honour along with their po;ver by voting for the unamended Parliament Sill, have resolved to abstain from voting, and the issue is most unsatisfactorily left to a chance conllicfc between Lord [ Halsbury's "Stalwarts" and Liberal Peers, with the odds, apparently, slightly in favour of Loud Halsbury. The meaning of Mr. Balfour's motion of censure on the Government— "That the Government's obtaining a pledge for the creation of Peers is a gross violation of Constitutional liberty, precluding the people from pronouncing on the question of Homo mile for Ireland"—is difficult to fathom. The theory that it is intended to reconcile the "Stalwarts" by allowing them to expire with a vivid protest on their lips seems not to square with the actualities of the position. That this theory is lobby gossip commends it not at all, for the events of the past six months have shown nothing more clearly than that lobby gossip and London newspaper speculation have both been very wide of the mark. Behind the lobby and the newspapers there must bo going on a silent clash of tactics that neither Mil. Asquitii nor Lord Lansdowne have any intention of exposing to the commentators. The motion of censure is to be debated in the Commons on Monday, and it may give an entirely new turn to tho course of events. It brings into sharp relief the fact that the Government's insistence on the unamended Bill is insistence upon a thing entirely different from that for which the Liberals went to war. The original grievance of .the Liberals was the power of the Lords to bar the door, if they so desired, against Liberal social reform. The Bill opened the door, and as amended still leaves it open. But it opened a second door, the door to tho carrying of a certain policy, Homo Rule, which has nothing to do with Liberal social reform, and to the carrying of it, moreover, without any direct consultation of the nation. The Government, _in fact, lias altered the chcquo given it by the electorate. Since tlie Liberals' policy must, even now and despite the power of Mn. Redmond, lie snaped with an eye to the party's future, and since the censure debate will raise the Irish issue very clearly, the immediate plans of tho Government are subject to suspension. Perhaps the Government, driven by Mn. Redmond, will hold to its course; but the Unionists will in the meantime have got in a heavy blow as a beginningof the two years' campaign on (lie Home Rule . question. 1