IMPERIAL POLITICS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2805, 18 December 1907, Page 19

IMPERIAL POLITICS.

» SPEECH BY MR BALFOUR. LONDON, December 10. Mt Balfour addressed a meeting of 7000 people at Devonport. He claimed . x hat in a few months the sections of ne Unionist party would be united on ■ the question of fiscal reform. It was destined to become not only an animating motive but a national conviction, which would make the next Unionist Administration' memorable in the history of the country. SPEECH BY MR ASQUITH. LONDON, December 11. Mr Asquith, speaking at Nottingham, twitted Mr Balfour with not answering his challenge. In proof of the productiveness and' resourcefulness of Freetrade as compared with Protection Mr Asquith contrasted Britain's present position of booming prosperity with the financial crisis in America and the difficulty of finding fresh sources of taxation in Germany. ". „ IMPERIALISM. . LONDON, December 12. Lord Curzon,. sneaking at Birmingham, ' delivered an address. on Imperialism. He declared that 'if the colonies broke away; they would survive and- ultimately flourish, though "the'^Empire woufchbs weakened it India were lost, and India would reel back into chaos. It was impossible for s the Empire to continue permanently governed' by the existing organisation. Some form of Imperial Council, advisory if no more, must sooner or later emerge. The questions of defence, the tariff problems, and the question as to whether the Empire could be made N more self-contained and self-sufficing in respect to trade w^ere still only in their preliminary stages of evolution, and 'it would /be at least a quarter of a century before they would be solved, if they were solved then. MR ASQUITH'S VIEWS. LONDON, December 12. Mr Asquith (Chancellor of the Exchequer), addressing the Eighty Club, favoured . quinquennial Parliaments, or possibly a- shorter term, as deanocratio ideas advanced. A well-constituted, wiselyvled Second Chamber, be saj^d, might be a real advantage in revising •work improvidently and precipitately performed. The Government intended, sooner or later, taking the opinion of Parliament and the nation upon the scheme of reform Sir H. Campbell-Banner-man had adumbrated.