BRITISH POLITICS.

Mataura Ensign, 29 January 1912, Page 6

BRITISH POLITICS.

THE NEW UNIONIST LEADER. A PARTY SPEECH. BY ELECTBIO TELEGRAPH.— 10PTHIGHT PEE UNITED PEESS ASSOCIATION. LONDON, Jan. 26. Mr Bonar Law (the newly-elected i Leader of the Unionists) addressed a packed and enthusiastic meeting at the Albert Hall. He said that the Government coidd not keep going at the j present pace; the result would be eith- j er the destruction of the Government j or the ruin of the country. The Cabinet, had played Faust to Mr Redmond's (Nationalist Leader) Mephistopheles, and was now called upon to redeem its bond. Disestablishment was an act of destructive violence. It appeared that the Unionist freetrader! must choose between tariff reform and Lloyd Georgeism. The country had had enough of the present Government. The lane had been long, but the turning was visible. Failure «nd incompetence | narked every step of the wild men who had control of the Radical party. He had trusted the late Sir Henry. Camp-1 bell-Bannorman, but he did not trust the present Premier, who was being driven, without resistance, faster down the slope. There was never a whiqirr of competent criticism on the Government benches; critics were promptly collared and made peers and knights or front henchmen. Wales had thirteen members and eight had been '-honored'' —from a peerage to ?. job. The. Labor Party had lost its influence, because it was in the Government's pocket. On the other side the Government had ""'•! the constitution and found themselves in the. Nationalist pocket. There b-'vl been tremendous trans-formations xrA - out explanation. Before Christmas Mr Churchill (ex-Home Secretary, and nowFirst Lord of the Admiralty) hud had enough of Stepney Assizes and genii? shepherds end had gone to the Admiralty and Mr Reginald MoKonna (exFirst Lord of the Admiralty and now Home Secretary) had had enough of Major Archer-Shee and Ixmi Charles Beresford (who have adopted a critical role) and both desired to begin a new leaf. Lord Haldane'.s (Minister for War) method of strengthening the regulars was by a reduction of twenty thousand men, and he had similarly reduced the auxiliaries by thirty thousand. All were armed, with weapons inferior to those of other tuitions. While he would not join in the senseless attack that was being made on Sir Edward Grey (Foreign Minister) by his own press, Mr Law said that there was the fact that the Morocco incident had ended in advantage to Fiance, while we got all the ill will. We had drifted to the verge of war because our responsible Minister had led foreign nations to believe that the Government would never assert its rights by force. Mr Lloyd George's (Chancellor of the Exchequer) Mansion House speech had saved xis from war, but that accentuated Germany's ill will. It would require a generation of sane statesmanship to live it down. The Radicals had increased the national expenditure to the extent of forty millions annually. Much of it was spent upon a swarm of new officials, numbering nearly six thousand, half of whom had been appointed without competition. Revolutionary Governments were always corrupt governments. Capital was leaving tlie country to an extent unknown in history. There seemed no bottom to the drop in consols. The Government had hitherto been preparing machinery for destruction which would come into operation next session. The Premier told them that women's suffrage would be a national disaster; yet he had expressed his willingness to perpetrate that disaster. Mr Law asked: "Has ever British statesmanship fallen so low?" He reviewed the Ministerial programme and said he believed that the Government was already in difficulties over the construction of a Bill that would be acceptable to Ireland and possibly to England. What humbugs these people were! They employed trickery and the methods of the artful dodger; their methods last session were a disgrace to the Government and degradation to the House of Commons." WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE. A CHEERFUL PROMISE. LONDON, Jan. 27. A Suffragist deputation interviewed Mr Harcourt (Secretary of State for the Colonies) at Waterfoot, Lancashire, and stated that they were dissatisfied with the opposition to women's franchise. They promised to make his life miserable. HOME RULE. LONDON, Jan. 27. Sir Cornthwaite Rason (Agent-Gen-eral for Western Australia), speaking at York, and referring to the comparison between Home Rule in Ireland and Home Rule in the Overseas Dominions, declared that if Australia wore where Ireland was Australia would never have asked and would never have had selfgovernment. THE BELFAST MEETING. Lord Londonderry (Lord Lieutenant), replying to Mr Churchill's letter, states that the main objection of Ulster Unionists has been removed; therefore he deprecated any interference with the holding of Mr Churchill's meeting elsewhere, but said he would not accept responsibility for the visit, owing to the intense feeling that had been aroused. The 'Daily Chronicle' states that three regiments of infantry and two of cavalry have been ordered to hold themselves in readiness to go to Belfast.