LORD DUNDONALD.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1687, 29 June 1904, Page 31

LORD DUNDONALD.

MILITARY AND CIVILIAN ' AUTHORITY. DISCUSSION IN DOMINION PARLIAMENT. 'OTTAWA. June 26. . A motion introduced bv the Opposition, censuring the Government in connection with the dismissal of the Earl of Dundonald, Commandant of the Canadian Military. Forces, as the result of a dispute with the Ministry, has been rejected by 84 votes, to 40. Colonel Hughes defended Lord Dundonald, declaring that the Ministry was so completely Vt variance with public opinion that it deserved to be dismissed. OTTAWA, June 27. In the discussion in the House of Commons concerning the Government’s action in cancelling the Earl of Dundcnald’s appointment, the Premier, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, was the principal speaker in defence of the Government. He stated that the trouble was due to the Earl of Dundonald having a policy of his own. Yet, said Sir Wilfrid, the Duke of Wellington, Britain’s most illustiious commander, never had a policy while he commanded the forces, hut was content to serve the Government, and v'liether his advice was heeded or refused he executed the instructions which were issued. The Earl of Dundonald had tried to impose his policy on the country through the medium of the press, tboiigh Disraeli had declared it lay with a Minister to decide whether or not official reports should be published. The question of the supremacy of military or civil power, continued the Premier, had been settled a hundred years ago, and always, both in Britain and the colonies, in favour of the civil power. Recently, when Lord Wolseley offered advice which the Secretary of War declined, he resigned instead of taking the violent, extreme and unpardonable course of committing a breach of discipline. Lord Dundonald ought to have resigned, then he could have brought the matter before Parliament. Sir Wilfrid Laurier advised members of the House to study the remarks m*>A© bv the Marquis of Lansdowne and the late Marquis of Salisbury, in the House oi Commons on March 4th, 1901.