A CROWDED HOUSE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 74, 30 March 1910, Page 7

A CROWDED HOUSE.

LORDS' VETO. MR. ASQUITH'S MOTION. MR. BALFOUR REPLIES. By Telegraph. — Press Association.— Copyright. (Received March 30, 9 a.m.) LONDON, 29th March. The question of tiie House of Lords' veto was considered in the House of Commons to-day. There was a crowded House, among those present being tho Prince of Wales and many Ambassadors. Mr. Asquith and Mr, Balfour received enthusiastic receptions. Mr. Asquith moved : "That thi3 House resolve itself into a committee to consider the relations of the two Houses and the duration of Parliament." The Prime Minister admitted that he had changed his youthful opinions, and now considered two Chambers expedient. He proceeded on a long constitutional argument to prove that limitation of the veto and shortening of Parliaments was the most practical way of securing that the popular will would not be frustrated. A referendum, or a joint session of the two Houses, as in Australia, were inadmissible under existing circumstances. . He concluded : "The Lords' absolute veto must follow the Crown's veto before the road is cleared for the advance of a full-grown, unfettered democracy." Mr. Balfour replied to Mr. Asquith'a arguments. INDEPENDENT LABOUR PARTY. "AN INEVITABLE DEADLOCK." THE COMING ELECTION. LONDON, 29th March. Mr. F. W. Jowett. who has represented West Bradford as a Labour member since 1906, .presided at a conference, held in London, of tho Independent Labour party. In an, address he stated that party government had reached the inevitable deadlock. The days of large majorities were numbered. Labour members of the House of Commons ought to vote on every occasion according to their convictions, leaving the question of convenience to others. The election, he added, showed a substantial majority against the House of Lords, but if the Irish Nationalists voted against the Budget, tho case against the Lords would be gone, because the country as a whole would so interpret the rejecting of the Budget. Mr. Asquith had allowed the contest between the two Houses to lapse into an agitation for the Lords' reform, over which election after election would pos sibly bt fougty to the exclusion of other vital questions.