FIGHT STILL RAGING.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 79, 5 April 1910, Page 71

FIGHT STILL RAGING.

IRISH PARTIES AND THE GOVERNMENT. MR. O'BRIEN SPEAKS OF THE NATIONALISTS. AND OFFERS ADVICE. By Telegraph.— l'rc»i Amociatlon.— Copyright. (Received April 5, 9.40 a.m.) LONDON, 4th April. Mr. William O'Brien (Leader of tho Independent Iribh Parly) fctates that Mr. Redmond and Mr. Dillon refused to join himself and Mr. Healy in an interview with Mr. Lloyd-George, in consequence of which Ireland had lost a million sterling annually. He advised the Ministers to omit Ireland from the Budget, and defy Mr. Redmond to oust them from office upon a pettifogging point of precedence for the Lords' veto. IRELAND AND BUDGET CONCESSIONS. MR ASQUITH'S DENIAL. (Received April 5, 10 a.m.) LONDON, 4th April. The Prime Minuter, Mr. Asquith, in the House of Commons, denied promising the Notionalists any kind of Budget concessions. SPEECH BY MR. REDMOND. HALF-HEARTED SECTION OF THE GOVERNMENT. ACTING ON DISASTROUS COUNSELS. LONDON, 4th April. In a speech nt Tipperaiy, Mr. John Redmond, Leader of tho Irish Nationalists, said that the Liberals as a whole were straight upon the question of the Lords, but it was useless to pretend that there was not an influential section of the Government who wero half-hearted and inclined to bo timid. It was acting on disastrous counsels to present no explicit declaration that Mr. Asquith would ask for guarantees. The situation would be eased if the Nationalists were assured that the Government would decline to continue in office in the event of guarantees being refused. If the Nationalists passed the Budget and the veto resolutions were rejected, the Nationalists would be left without a weapon to force Mr. Asquith to abide by his Albert Hall declaration. If the third reading of tho Budget, was reserved until a crisis was precipitated, the Nationalists^ would then discuss what concession would mako the Budget tolerable. Mr. Redmond added that the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Lloyd-George, had satisfied him weeks ago that amicable arrangements wero possible with regard to the spirits and license duties and land tax revaluation. TARIFF REFORM. THE UNIONIST PROGRAMME. COLONIAL CORN. LONDON, 4th April. Tho Mancnester Guardinn (Liberal),' discussing the question whether the Unionfsts contemploto changing their programme fn order to allow colonial corn to be admitted free, say* that the Tariff Reform League's literature published in January suggested thnt colonial corn should bo taxed ono shilling, while the National Union of Conservative Associations itatod that colonial corn should be free. IRISH PARTY' AND THE BUDGET. CABINET DISAGREEMENT. LONDON, 4th April. ! Mr. T. P. O'Connor (Nationalist M. P.) | cabled to the New York Times that tho j Irish are ready to swallow nearly everything in the 'Budget in order to keep the Government, together, but that a section of the Cabinet is seeking to confuse the issue over the Lords and the Budget, and is equally ready to discredit Mr. Lloyd-George, Budget and personality are equally disliked. Mr. O'Connor characterises Mr. Asquith, Mr. Haldane, and Sir E. Grey as thorns in the sides of tho Liberals.