IMPERIAL POLITICS

Otago Witness, Issue 3148, 15 July 1914, Page 26

IMPERIAL POLITICS

THE FINANCE BILL. LONDON, July 7. In the House-of Commons, Mr Asquith proposed a 'resolution allocating time for the discussion of the Finance Bill. Mr Bonar Law's dissenting amendment was defeated by 269 to 246. , 8 - Mr Asquith, in moving to restrict the time for debating the Finance Bill, claimed j that the Government was not niggardly in the time allotted to measures. Mr Balfour said the blame for the congestion of business lay with the Government. He called upon them to devise some less ruthless remedy than the guillotine. Mr Healy declared that the Budget having reached to £200,000,000, the Government desired to throttle the House of Commons'. The division is not generally re-

garded as snap one, but is due to Liberals forming a Holt cave and a “law and order” group, ‘who have be’en active since the Ulster gunrunning episode. Twenty-two Liberals deliberately abstained from voting, and the O’Brienites voted with the Opposition. July 9. The Prime Minister’s resolution in favour of restricting the time for speaking on the Finance Bill was carried on the adoption of the closure by .265 votes to 175. , The guillotine was then applied to the debate itself. The Government’s increased majority on the closure resolution was due to the Prime Minister’s reiterated promise of a widespread inquiry into income tax anomalies. The Cabinet is seriously considering the backward state of parliamentary business and the mutinous attitude of a section cf its followers. Ministers for the first tinfe in eight years and a-half are alarmed about their majority. July 10. It is believed in the Lobby that the Government has decided to prorogue Parliament in the middle of August and to inaugurate a new session in the autumn. The Prime Minister will on Monday announce the intentions of the Government