BRITISH POLITICS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2934, 8 June 1910, Page 45

BRITISH POLITICS.

IN AND OUT OF BRITAIN

MR ROOSEVELT IN EGYPT.

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

LONDON, April 1. Three months ago the best friends of the Liberal party cried out in a loud and determined tone that the majority secured at the polls must not be frittered away by false tactics or internal dissension—but must be used forthwith to achieve one or all of the direct objects of the peoples mandate. And the Government host replied, " Yea, verily it will be so used and the using of it shall be dire and sudden. But there was a serious weakness in the Government armour. The compact which had been understood to exist between the Liberals and the Nationalists turned out to be merely a semi-under-standing, and Mr John •Redmond, who had ruled but loosely 80 Nationalist M.P. s, now discovered himself as the ruler absolute of 600 M.P.'s and the destinies of the United Kingdom. While it lasts this is finer than any vision of a harried dictatorship at Dublin, and Mr Redmond is showing no signs of bringing the brief sweetness to a close. Almost every day, even at this date, either he or Mr Dillon or Mr T. P. O'Connor is in private conference with the Premier or the Chancellor of the Exchequer; but out of these conferences nothing has come. Mr Redmond was as cryptic and uncompromising in the veto debate on Tuesday as he was the day after the elections closed. The negotiations have been brought back to his original terms. He will support the Government so long, and only so long, as it prosecutes the direct attack on the Lords, " no other measure being interposed." Absolutely no progress has been made since the election, except by the Lords themselves. They at least have gone so far as to declare themselves possible of improvement, while in the Commons the two parties still lie in their trenches and glare at each other. Reluctantly the Liberal supporters have to confess an impasse. Their only hope from the first was to drag the Nationalists with_ them by a policy of boldness, by decla.ring frankly, and as if they meant what they 6aid, that if their plan of campaign was not successful they would resign office. The Prime Minister seems to have realised only this week that the one thing the Irish were likely to respect was the fear that the Liberals would be defeated and go out of office. He has declared once more that the veto resolutions will be forced on, by the use of the guillotine. At the moment there seems to be little interest or significanc in what the Commons may do later. Mr Redmond insists on holding the Budget as a hostage for the good conduct of the Lords. He will not hoar of passing it until the Lords have declared upon the veto resolutions, which it is assumed the Commons will hurl at them. So that after all, the Government majority is no less problematic to-day than when the members, first went up. Mr Asquith, of course, has been severely criticised by his own side throughout the negotiations. It is generally admitted that the Liberal majority has been frittered away. That is to say. such moral force as the elections gave the Government, irrespective of the mere mensuration of numbers, is quite spent. The burden of the complaint against the Liberal chief is rather that he allowed his headstrong lieutenants, whom it is unnecessary to name, to barter away his moral advantage in the hope of ca.inirie a. definite alliance with a party which became more coy the more it was wooed, than that he has shown any particular want of tact or courage personally. THE COMING ELECTION. Nobody in authority has been able to suggest any possible means of avoiding another general election,, within the next few months. It is more generally accepted now than it was last October that there must be am election, and the only matter of surmise is as to when it will be. Both sides are making active preparations in the country, and of the two I fancy the Unionists relish the idea the more cordially. As I pointed out some months ago, before the last election, the Unionist organisation then suffered from laxity, which practically forbade the more thoughtful members of the party to hope for victory. These weaknesses have been referred to by persons who had a right to advise the party, and remedied to such an extent that the Unionist organisation will at the next test be probably as good as the Liberal, while there is the traditional Unionist advantage .of the possession of more funds than their opponents. As against this, the Unionists at the present moment see an element in the political outlook which is not at all to their taste. It is one thing to go to the country as a party in office —another to be the harbingers of reform, ready for a mandate from a constituency which is growing frankly impatient of the uncertainty which has reigned here for the past two yearsi or more. What the Unionists want is to go to the country as the "outs." What they fear is they will have to go as the " ins." The Government has now hinted that if baulked in its programme, it will simply resign office instead of asking for another dissolution. It will then be for the Unionists to take up the rein® and endeavour to get the supply which Mr Asquith was shrewd enough not to get for them.. This would at once precipitate another crisis, and the their inevitable dissolution would find the Conservatives as the party in office, asking for a renewal of confidence. It is early as yet to make any predictions as to the result of the general election when it does come. Personally I am of opinion that something very unexpected and unsettling must intervene to prevent the Unionists coming back with a majority on Tariff Reform. The anger against the Lords died almost before the cadidates went to the polls in January, and I do not see how any issue can be run counter to Tariff Reform with any great hope. THE BIG STICK. Outside Great Britain the question was whether Mr Roosevelt would leave Egypt at the north as hearty and well as he arrived in it from the south. In common with many other visitors to Khartoum, the ex-President was greatly impressed by the evidence there of England's organising power, which has transformed the Soudan in the course of a dozen years from a barbarous and benighted land to one ordered, peaceful, happy, and prosperous. True to his character, he said what he thought of it, and far down at Cairo the Nationalists,

still exulting in the murder of Boutros Pasha, gnashed their teeth and demanded that he be removed. It was exactly the sort of position he liked. He said he would like to have a " heart to heart talk " with the Nationalist editors who bad criticised him. They came, chiefly in frock coats and tarbrushes, but one, untamed, in the flowing robes and turban of the Arabs. Mr Roosevelt spoke plainly and straight to them. The press, he mid, was the most formidable weapon of modern life, and should be used for good purposes. Some of the editors choked back their tears as the burly man of the world poured out his advice. Others declared he knew not of what he" spoke. But this was not all. Knowing that the University of Egypt was a hotbed of the Nationalist movement, Mr Roosevelt determined to speak there. The official world was panic-stricken. It was feared that he would speak of the murder of Boutros. Prince Fouad, uncle of the Khedive .and president of the University, appealed to Sir Eldon Gorsfc, the British Agent, to interfere. He, of course, could not, and the speech was made, as fully and fearlessly as if there were no assassin's blades in the whole of Egypt. Mr Roosevelt dwelt upon the essentials of nationality, the development of justice, fair play, self-reliance, and moderation, which could come only by process, not by act. When peoples were not ready for self-government, paper constitutions were useless. He denounced vigorously and without any equivocation the murder of Boutros Pasba. which had earned the hor.ror of all civilesed peoples. It is said that Sir Eldon Gorst, who sat in the front row of the audience, looked more and more uncomfortable as the Nationalists glowered under the lash. The following evening there was an angry demonstration of Nationalists outside Shepheard's Hotel. When Mr Roosevelt left Egypt on Wednesday he received a number of official letters thanking him for the assistance he had given to the mission of England in Esrypt. Sir Eldon Gorst and Sir Reginald W'ingate both spoke in terms of unusual' warmth. But the vigorous American is well out of a hot place. There was considerable anxiety for his safety in Egypt. !