NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 15166, 4 December 1912, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

THE POLITICAL SITUATION AT

HOME.

There must come a time when Mr. Asquith will break with the social crudities of Mr. Lloyd-George, we read in Mr. Arthur Baumann's paper in the Fortnightly on "The Opportunity of the Unionists." When this break comes it will inevitably mean a'.general election. " Whether this is probable to-morrow, next year, or five years hence can be known to a very f few individuals, if to any. If there is really a division in the Cabinet too deep to be accommodated, there will almost certainly be a general election in a few months. If' there is no such division, or if it should bo accommodated, the election will take place in 1915. .Two years pass quickly; and whether- rumour is lying or not, there can be no doubt that the Unionist party have an opportunity of gaining power such as has not opened before them since the dark year of 1906." When the chance comes the duty of the Unionist leaders will be to draw in the moderate men of all parties. For this purpose the one thing necessary is the assurance that if moderate men put the present Government out, they will get the peace they want, and not merely exchange one bundle of revolutionary policies for another. " Politicus," in the following chapter, sketches a Unionist land policy, which also waits development in a new House of Parliament. The Liberal party is opposed to the creation of numerous small .landowners for political reasons, "it is not in the Radical and Socialist interest that the people of this country should be prosperous and contented," but the writer hopes that " before long a Unionist Government will carry out that policy to which it is pledged, which has proved successful in all countries, and which is desired by the British farmers themselves. It will place agriculture on a freehold basis."

THE FEDERATION OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE.

That there are obvious difficulties iii the way of a Federal Government for the British Empire everyone recognises. The Right Hon. Herbert Samuel lays considerable stress on these problems in dealing with the subject in the Nineteenth Century. A few of the difficulties he sum- : marises thus:— The creation of a central authority chosen by the whole Empire and governing its common affairs would be a task surrounded by formidable difficulties. The most important of the common interests is defence. Defence- is largely a matter of finance. Is the Federal Parliament to have powers •of levying taxation in the United Kingdom and in the Dominions ? If so, how are such powers to be enforced? What is to bappen if one part of the Empire dissents from the legislation passed by the Federal Parliament? Is it possible to devise a Constitution in such a way that its law should be operative, only if the representatives of all the countries subject to it concur in their passing, or should be operative only in the territories of such of them as do concur!" ' : "" y "' '