BRITISH POLITICS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLIII, Issue XLIII, 6 March 1909, Page 3

BRITISH POLITICS.

[Peess Association.— Copxbkjht] THE INDIAN COUNCILS BILL." j A MINISTERIAL BY-ELECTION.' IHE ARMY ESTIMATES.- ■■•' ' LONDON, Friday. : .'An important, debate in the House of Lords on. -the Indian Councils Bill resulted in. the rejection, by 59 votes. to .18, of clause 3, empowering the Gover. nnr-General to create an executive .council in any province, under a Lieut.Genera], '•. despite Viscount Morley's appeal, en tho ground of the urgency of the measure. Lord Curzon, Lord Lansdowne, and -Lord Macdonneli of Swinford, opposed Viscount Morley's scheme, though sympathetic towards tho difficulties of the situation. Lord Northoots said the Bill would take 1 -'power froai tho British, representing 100,000,000 agriculturists, and give control of the councils to middle-class politicians, representing insignificant I minorities. . . The South Edi'ibuvgh by-election resulted in the suited in the re-election of Mr Arthur Dewar (the new SolicitorGeneral for Scotland), who polled 8185 votes. Mr Cox (Conservative) polled 60&4. . . Mr HaMane, Secretary for War, made a long and detailed speech in introducing the Army Estimates in the House of Commons. Jfe said the recruiting during the year had been s'.ngularly eood, md the special reserve now numbered ,7o,ooo, equai to the old mililii A generous tribute to the "Daily Mail" and employers of labour in connection''with the Territorials aroused violent from the Jabour benches. Mr Haldane retorted that owing to the breakdown of the auxiliary service? ihe nation^had never been nearer convscfirjtibn, but itfae reoci^ti movement had established a stronger bulwark against cou&ription than ever before. Xhirty-threo \thousau'd had been added to the Territorials In the last (-even weeks,'; and; the tptal was now' 240,000. The' root idea was Imperial ,organisation, -where it would be possible for the oversea dominions to work on a ■similar pattern, of organisation to our own, affording a possibility of cooperation in case of great necessity. The last thing the Government would dream of would bo to even sugeest to the oversea dominions what they should do The staff colleges had been enlarged, and it was now possible io receive any oversea officers. General Sir William Nicholson, Chief of the General Staff, had completed plans for home defence, inaking a successful invasion even less likely than in the past. . \ Sir Cnarles Dilke 'criticised the Germanic trend of Mr HaUane's mind. Mr Arnold Fofeter (formerly Secretary for \Varj, ridiculed the training of a special^ reserve. Mr Haldane doalt more with names than things. He commented on the reduction "of 100.000 men. yet the smaller army cost more than in\tho pre-reform days. The reduction of £24,000 was nominal : realty there was an increase of £275,000, as £300,000 was transferred to the Indian 'account.