IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

Evening Star, Issue 11663, 23 January 1902, Page 6

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

A REPETITION OF PROVEN FALSEHOODS. THE OPPOSITION'S COLLAPSE. MR BALFOUR'S DISGUST. Press Association —By Telegraph—Copyright. LONDON, January 22. During the debate on Mr Cawley's amendment to the AddrevSs-iD-Reply, Sir W. V. Harcourt, in the course of his speech, said that it was inipioiss to insist on unconditional surrender. The Government policy gave no promise of a durable peace. He denounced the proclamation of martial law and the suspension of the Cape Constitution. Mr Balfour said that he was disgusted with the attacks on the War Office, whose administration and performance were unequalled in the history of the Empire. He attributed the extraordinary dullness of the debate to Mr Chamberlain's speech knocking everybody out of time. He bantered Sir W. V. Harcourt upon devoting threefourths of his speech in proving that he was tied to Lord Rosebery's chariot wheels. Unconditional surrender by the Boers only applied to the political arrangements involving the incorporation of the ex-Repub-lics. There must be a, surrender of some kind. He appealed to the Opposition to abstain from party fights calculated to encourage the Boers and prolong the war in the hope that the Government would be displaced. Mr Lloyd George said that the amendment moved by Mr Cawley simply affirmed two contradictory propositions. Apparently the section of his party captured by Sir H. Campbell-Ban-nerman had steeped him in all the principles of that section. Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman said that the devastation policy was a gigantic political blunder, and the concentration camps an offence against civilisation, a military mistake, and a political disaster. He urged a generous, magnanimous peace. Peace was delayed because Great Britain had refused independence. Mr Cawley's amendment was negatived by an overwhelming majority. The Nationalists, a few extreme Radicals, and Messrs Lloyd George and Labouchere abstained from voting. The minority included Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman, Sir W. V. Harcourt, Messrs Join Morley and Bryce, and Sir H. Fowler. The Liberal-Imperialists abstained from taking part in the debate on the ground that Mr Chamberlain's speech left no wide divergence of principle. Sir Edward Grey, Messrs Haldane (K.C.), R, C. Munro, and others did not vote. Mt Ajsquith was ill. (Received January 23, at 11.7 a.m.) • Mr Cawley's amendment was negatived by 335 votes to 123. [The Ministerial majority at the General Election of 1900 was 134. The majority of the Liberal-Imperialists must therefore have voted with the Government.]