BRITISH POLITICS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 9344, 20 October 1910, Page 3

BRITISH POLITICS.

A UNIONIST "REVEILLE." (By Electbio Telegraph—Copybight.) iPkh Prksb Association.) LONDON, Oct. 19. A ynionist "Reveille .Manifesto," an outcome of the movement cabled on October 5, has been issued with the approval of the Party Whips. The manifesto urges the party's concentration upon the constructive side of Unionism, and. declares a wave of vague but bitter discontent is sweeping the popular mind of Great Britain and the Continent. There must be - a fresh balancing of popular forces. ' The "Reveille" programme provides for : (1) The maintenance of the supremacy of the Navy, if necessary, by a great loan; (2) the construction of a scientific tariff behind which industrial insurances would give workers the security of State credit, the credit of great Friendly Societies being used, thus avoiding the ruin' inherent,in the Right to Work Bill; (3) State credit to assist in the purchase, of land by small owners, avoiding. State ownership: (4) the reform of • the Poor Law; (5) Colonial preference. ' [The cable referred to of October 5 stated that increasing unrest in the Unionist rank and file had resulted in a hundred Lords and Commoners, headed by Lord Willoughby De Broke and Mr Henry Page Croft, forming an organisation to induce the party leaders to take up more active propaganda work instead of relying on their present defensive policy.]

IMPERIAL LABOUR CONFERENCE. LONDON, Oct. 19. * The Daily Chronicle states that British Labour leaders are communicating with Colonial leaders with a view to holding a conference in 1911 to discuss the question of the possibility of joint action in the matters affecting the interest of the workers of the_ Empire. If a permanent conference is established it is anticipated that much of the present divergence of opinion between Labourites here and in the Colonies will disappear. The questions wherein differences were noticeable include tariffs and the treatment of the coloured people of the Empire. Mr.Ramsay McDonald originated the ( idea, urging on his colleagues the necessity -for an Imperial labour policy. HOME RULE. THE "BIRRELLESQUE" SOLUTION. OTTAWA, Oct. 19. Mr T. P. O'Connor, speaking at Vancouver, defined the Home. Rule the Nationalists wanted as a subordinate Parliament. He favoured the "Birrellesque" Home Rule, which was Home Rule all round. LONDON, Oct. 19. The Master of Elibank, speaking at Belfast, said . Home Rule was a far wider question than it was twenty-five years ago. Now behind it lay the arousing of the national spirit of Scotland and Wales. For business reasons alone the question would soon become an urgent necessity. THE NAVAL VOTE. ■ LONDON, Oct. 19. The Right Hon. R. McKenna, First Lord of the Admiralty, speaking at Blaenavon, Monmouthshire, said that with patience the Osborne problem would bo solved, restoring the good that trade union representation had done whilerespecting the conscience of political dissenters. Replying to labour criticisms on ex- | penditure on the Navy, Mr McKenna declared that "armaments are to a nation what levies of strike pay .are to trade unions." If it was necessary, _ he added, to have instruments of war against one's fellow-countrymen, it was impossible to let arms rusjf in dealing with foreigners. The Government gave a bold and sincere lead in the matter of reduction of armaments three years ago, but was bound to change in 1909, when the foreign programmes were bigger than ever. The Government was • bound to secure the safety of the country and the Empire. He the fact that there had been a requisition for a : hundred million loan, signed by Generals and Admirals. "Such a loan," said Mr McKenna, "would be a temporary expedient. We have to maintain the Navy as the first in the world for all time, and the first sign of decadence will be when the Navy is not paid for out of annual revenue, and we rely on borrowed money.