"MISREPRESENTED"

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 7020, 7 January 1910, Page 7

"MISREPRESENTED"

LORDS DEFENDED. MAEQUIS OF LANSDOWNE ON THE CRISIS. .-UnAROHY AND REVOLUTION. By Telegraph—Press Association— Oopyr.; (Reooived January 6, 10.55 p.m.) , LONDON, January 6. I The Marquis of Lansdowne, Conservative leader in the House of Lords, addressed a largo meeting at Liverpool yesterday. He protested that the cardinal point of their opponent's misrepresentation was that the Lords had arrogated to themselves the right of controlling "taxation. He cited Lord Loreburn's statement that the Lords had ample powers to deal with money Bills, and asked: "What are ample powers, if they are never intended to bo exercised?" Lord Lansdowne said his amendment for submitting the Budget to the judgment of the country was treated as if it were an Anarchist bomb sufficient to wreck every institution in the country. Yet Ministers had proposed a revolutionary change in the Constitution. They intended to substitute for the present system what virtually would be control by a single Chamber. A GRAVE PROBLEM. He complained of the levity with which they approached the problem of the future House of -Lords, and quoted Ministers' vague and indefinite utterances on tlio subject. "Whatever people think about the Budget or the House of Lords," declared Lord Lansdowne, "they will not allow any Government a free hand to turn us over to the untempered mercy of a chance- majority in the House of Commons and of the Ministers, who may happen to control that majority. "There never was a moment in tho history of the country wheu such an experiment would t*> fraught with more danger. When the political pendulum swings with alarming rapidity wo might find ourselves—as after the last election —with a House of Commons in which there were over 300 members who had never been in Parliament before, and consequently possessing no special acquaintance with public affaire. Wo might also have a raw Cabinet. Moreover, freedom of discussion in the House of Commons nowadays is unprecedentedly curtailed. MERCENARY IRISH. "And, in tJhe background, there is :tho Irish party, watching and ready to sell itself to those who will pay tho highest political, price, for their assistance. Are you, with all these conditions, prepared to hand to tho House io£ Commons tho solo direction of tho affairs of our great Empire, with India and the Dominions overseas, questions of naval and military defence, finance, and, in fact, all the great questions ' which should naturally be deliberately dealt with by your Parliament?" Lord Liansdowne quoted approvingly the recomimendations of Lard Roseibery's committee for reform of the House of Lords. This reform, he contended, should be the work of both political parties. It was not altogether a creditable incident that when the comEnifcteo was seb up Liberal Peers should have refused to participate or Jissist in promoting a solution of tho question. CO-ORDINATED POWER.

The adoption of the ■ committee's recommendations, Lord Lansdowne urged, would have given a very compact and efficient House. He was opposed to going muon further, because he would always believe in a preponderating balance of power in | the House of Commons. "If , you Set orp a House of Lards fortified by some process of election, and otherwise placed in a position to analyse legislation passed by the Commons, suck a House could claim what it does not now—co-ordinate power with the popular House." - Lord Lansdowne declared that the Lords opposed the Budget on its own account, and because they did not wish the country to be switched off Tariff Reform and switched on to another policy which the Lords believed 'to be suicidal. He added that Tariff Reform was the only system capablo of maintaining Britain's industrial pre-eminence. THE LIBERAL CAMPAIGN. SPEECHES BY THE LEADING MINISTERS. DEFENCE OF PORT JACKSON. . LONDON, January 6. The Prime Minister, speaking at Brighton, defended the equitable valuation of lojkl amd other features of the Budget, and reiterated that the House of Commons must liavo supremacy over taxation and finance matters. Mr Lloyd George, in an election speech at St. Fancras, declared that a travelling menagerie of peers had visited almost every part of the kingdom. They had, he said, never worked so hard in their lives. "OUT OF DATE."

Sir Edward Grey, speaking at daton, said that even a Second Chamber, if based cm. hereditary right, would become increasingly conservative in course of time. The speaker added: " The hereditary principle to Liberals is out of date." Mr Winston Churchill, in an election address at Dundee, said the quarrel between the democratic electorate and the one-sided wealthy Chamber

had come at last, and the collision must involve a constitutional change. HOME RULE BATTLES. Violent meetings are being held in Ulster against Home Rule. Fivo thousand persona assembled in one ijuilding in Belfast, and 15,000 were unable 'to enter. At a Fiscal Reform League meeting in Dublin complaint was made that the Redmondites were refusing tariff reform, to tho detriment of the Irish agriculturist. Mr William O'Brien has re-entered politics, and is conducting a vigorous campaign against the Redmondites, urging that their tyranny should be annihilated. A Nonconformist Unionist association is actively promoting anti-Home Ratio memorials. .BiIXSiONERS REASSURED. At tho instance of iur Rowland Hunt, Unionist member for Ludlow, tho Post Office has issued a circular assuring old age pensioners of the security oi" their pensions. Sir Robert Perks, M.P. for Louth, and a leading member of the Wcsleyan Church, protests against Wesleyans subordinating their Parliamentary action to the Free Church Federation's methods, which were inspired by ministers who were brilliant preachers but bad political guides. OVER-SEA WATCHERS. , Sir Hector Ruson, Agent-General I for West Australia, in a speech at Sheffield, denied that tho oversea dominions were indignant at tho action of: tho Lords. They, like the Motherland, were concerned with the question of fair trade as against free trade. He advised his hearers to weigh the fiscal question, and let the Mother Country be their first consideration, then their kith and kin overseas. The Spanish Republican and Social Democratic party at Oorunna, in the north of Spain, is sending greetings to Mr Lloyd George, and proclaiming him the benefactor: of the universe. LIBERiALS AND THE NAVY. BEBESFOBD CHAEGES SUPPORTED BY MTJLMNEBS. Speaking at Hull on December 16th, Lord Charles Bjresford declared that tho firm of 11. H: Mulliner and Co., of Coventry, iu May. 1906, informed .the Board of Admiralty that Germany had accelerated its naval shipbuilding, and that the Admiralty . showed its re-jentinent of thio warning: by withholding further orders from the firm. On the' 18th this attack on the Admiralty was corroborated by the bead of Mulliner and Co.. in a letter to,the newspapers.. Mr Mulliner stated that a series of interviews between Cabinet Ministers and members of tho Committee of Imperial Defence in February laat resulted in the Government accepting his conclusions regarding the dangers of Germany's preparations, which were forwarded to the Admiralty in 1936. Mr Mulliner declared that the present naval situation was graver than ever.

DIBRKGAEDED 'WARNINGS. Mr Mulliner. in a letter to "The Times" some mouths ago. gave some details of the manner in which the Admiralty ignored warnings given by him on information, accidentally acquired hy him. Mr Mulliner wrote: "The German.expansion was the result of an arrangement made at the end of 1905. During the whole of 1906 and. 1907 machinery from nearly every maker in Germany was pouring into Krupp's works, and vast buildings are boing- erected to accommodate such plant. The Ad.miralty knew, but, for reasons which I need not now discuss, did not impart the information to the Government. Owing to accidental circumstances (for whioh I claim no merit) I became aware in my then capaoity as manager of the Coventry Ordnance Works, in May, 1906, of the whole ■of the vast German soheme, audi naturally at once communicated with our Admiralty. During 190fi, 1907, and the earlier part of 1908, I had many interviews with the principal Admiralty officials respecting the information which had come to my knowledge, and I was ablo to submit proof of my assertions. As I know that no steps had been taken to provide a corresponding increase of armament, plant in this country, I decided . last ; summer -to tako other means to make the Government acquainted with a position which I regarded '.as of the greatest national importance. .In other quarters the information which the Admiralty ignored was taken ooriously, inquiries were at once made, and it was found to be correot." Lord Charles Beresford stated at Hull that since ,he had given the information to the -Admiralty, the firm with whioh Hx Mulliner was connected had never received an Admiralty order.