BRITISH POLITICS.

Feilding Star, Volume VI, Issue 1673, 18 December 1911, Page 3

BRITISH POLITICS.

DAME RUMOUR REPUDIATED.

BY ELECTRIO TELEGRAPH —COPYRIGHT. [l_lt PEESS ASSOCIATION.] (Received Dec. 18, 8.4.5 a.m.) London, December 17. Mr Ramsay Macdonald, speaking at Swansea; denied the rumours of a split in tbo Labour Party. He said he hoped the time would never come when the party would coerce tho conscientious minority into the same division in the lobby. Replying to a question put by Mr Archer Slice, a s to whether Consuls wore_ instructed to report to trade openings for tho Dominions as well as .tlie Motherland, Mr Acland'said they wore instructed to inform Britain of developments affecting the Dominions as exporters of foodstuffs. The Grand Master of tbe Manchester "Unity said that if it became an approved society under the Insurance Dill he believed the result would bo a prosperous future. The Chairman of the National Deposit Society s aid that, while preferring to be left unfettered by the Insurance Bill, it was as good as could bo expected under the circumstances. liOrd Roberts, writing in the press, deprecates Lord Haldane's optimism. He says we have just been on tho brink of a great war. but the Regulars are. nob fitted ior war. The rifles are inferior to those used by the French and Germans, and tho artillery is scarcely more satisfactory. It is difficult to write temperately respecting the Territorials, who lack the essentials for modern warfare, discipline, and shooting with precision. Lord Haldane, replying, said ho would rather pay more for an increase in the navy, than an increase in the 6UT*nly of half-trained soldiers. Dispito what wa s said about the efficiency of German soldiers, our own regulars were the finest in the world.