THE BRITISH BUDGET

Evening Star, Issue 14186, 11 October 1909, Page 6

THE BRITISH BUDGET

MR LLOYD-GEORGE AT NEWCASTLE,

A GREAT RECEPTION,

OUT OF THE WILDERNESS.

Press Assosiatijn—By Telegraph—Copyright.

LONDON, October 10.

Mr Lloyd-George, Chancellor of the Exchequer, addressed a meeting of 4,000 people at the Palace Theatre, Newcastle, last night. An elaborate barricade was erected around the hall to keep the suffragettes from the entrances, and the audience was composed entirely of men. Nevertheless, there wore several interruptions and ono ejection during the early part of the speech. Mr Lloyd-George was accorded •» great reception. Ho said that, the Budget had emerged from .its forty days and nights in the wilderness much strengthened and improved. "We have done our best to meet hard cases. The Bill is now practically in the form m which it is going to become law. The only classes who detest it are food taxers, who know that the Budget has put an end to their desires. Mid the landlords, who chiefly object to State valuation, which w3l put a perfectly impartial valuation upon tberr land and form the standard for ihe future buyer. The Government axe going to have all their taxes or none. Ef the Budget was an attack on industry, it is strange that trade is improving and that industries which are making a beginning can make profits. The only slump has been in dukes.—(Laughter.) A fully-equipped duke costs as much to maintain as a couple of Dreadnoughts. He ie as great a terror, and lasts longer. The Budget has simply knocked a little gilt off the ducal stage coach.”

THE LORDS AND THEIR SHIP.

THE COMING REVOLUTION

SOME PERTINENT QUESTIONS.

LONDON, October 10, (Received October H, at 8.20 a.m.)

Mr Lloyd-George continued that the more trrespoßsible featherheads among the Lords want to throw the Budget oat. Poor Lord Lansdowne, with a creaking old ship and a mutinous old crew, has got to sail through the narrows with one eye on the weather glass and the other on the forecastle. The real sailing master is the chief Tory Whip, who was now trying to decide whether it was safe to shoot the albatross. The Budget’s fate depends on his reports from the country. Concluding, Mr Lloyd-George said that the Lords may decree a revolution, but the people would direct it. If the Constitution were torn to pieces issues would be raised .which the Lords little dreamed of. Who made, he asked, 10,000 people the owners of the soil? Who wet© responsible for the scheme whereby one engages in grinding labor, eking out a precarious existence, and another is rolling in unearned luxury? These questions would be asked, and the answer would be charged with peril for the order of things which the peers represent. The speech also contained an attack of a nature similar to his Limehouse speech upon landlords. Mr Lloyd-George instanced the largeness of "the profits upon land sold to railways and municipalities, and the rfoal royalties. Addressing an overflow meeting of 6,000, ho said he was glad that the people were with the Government in the fight. He had feared at the start that they might not realise in time how deeply their interests were bound np in the Budget.

THE LIBERALS PREPARED. NO COMPROMISE WILL BE ACCEPTED. LONDON, October 9. In the course of a speech at a banquet given by the National Liberal Club to Lord Loreburn (the Lord ChancoUor), Mr Winston Churchill (President of the Board of Trade) said that it would be a constitutional outrage if the House of Lords rejected the Finance Bill, lb was difficult to believe that responsible statesmen would plunge the country’s finances into a largely irremediable confusion. Moreover, the Opposition Leader was not anxious to fight a decisive battle npon an unfavorable issue. The control of the finance by the representative Assembly was the keystone of the constitutional fabric. After 600 hours’ discussion the Budget would leave the House of Commons in full form. Mr GhurchiU added; “We fear no conflict, w© shall make no overtures, and w© shaH accept no compromise.”

Lord Loreburn declared that the present Parliament had run over two-thirds of its statutory life. If the country disapproved of the taxes they could bo repealed. Ho could not believe that the Conservative leaders would take sips leading to a most grave conflict, and placing the business of the country in a state, of disaster. He repudiated the allegation that the Liberals’ aims were Socialistic, and said that the only really novel tax was the Land Tax.