BRITISH POLITICS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3403, 4 June 1919, Page 49

BRITISH POLITICS.

BLOCKING REFORM. LONDON, May 16 (delayed). By 157 votes to 25 the House of Comijnons rejected a private measure seeking to enable local authorities to undertake public services and trading -without parliamentary sanction. The Government opposed tie measure on the ground that the Bill wea too drastic. VALUE OF AN OPPOSITION;' LONDON, May 17 (delayed). Mr Asquith, in a speech at Newcastle, emphasised the inestimable advantage ■of a compact and determined Opposition in Parliament, saying that it 'was the essence of parliamentary life. The artificial conditions of the December election had resulted in a top-heavy, unworkmanlike machine. Coalition, though often necessary in war, was wholly unsxiited to the constructive tasks of peace. We must, he declared, have a speedy return to healthy political and parliamentary conditions. LEVY ON CAPITAL. LONDON, May 16 (delayed). The "Free" Liberals and the Labou* Party have adopted the principle of a levy on capital in the notice of motion for tha ' rejection of the Budget. Speaking at Dundee, Mr Winston Churchill said the Budget proposals would not add to the cost of living or impose a burden on us or the dominions, who bad sent, not mere handfuls of soldiers, but great armies. The dominions would regard the proposals as a kindly act. We should not treat them aa a question of principle, but as a measure of Imperial diplomacy, designed to express our gratitude to the dominions.

May 20. Sir Donald Maclean, in the House ol Commons, urged the appointment of * Committee of Inquiry into the proposed: capital levy, providing data for a decision before the next Budget was considered. He said he regarded the Imperial preference proposals as an anaemic effort, and hoped the Chancellor would gather courage to introduce a scheme of more lasting importance to the whole Empire. FINANCE BILL. LONDON, May 30. In the House of Commons, Mr F. D. Acland moved the rejection of the Finance Bill,, objecting to preferential tariffs and the reduction of the- excess profits tax without a similar reduction in the workers' income tax, also to the failure to introduce a capital levy.. Mr Chamberlain defended preference, a.nd said that Britain derived an advantage by the existing dominions' preference. He condemned the capital lew, 'which, would create feeling of fear and insecurity among those to whom they must appeal to nut the country's finance on a sound footing. He hoped that the Allies by 1920 would be in a position to shoulder some of their debts, and also that their enemies would begin to make contributions. Mr Clynes said taxation alone could not carry the immense war burdens. He repudiated the idea that friendship with the dominions would be improved by preference, and said it would give some colonial trades vast profits. The House of Commons passed the second reading of the Finance Bill. Sir E. Carson deprecated the proposed capital levy as an unsound method of taxation. Britain owed a preference to the dominions as a mark of gratitude for their splendid share in the war. WOMEN AS JUSTICES. LONDON, May 23 (delayed). In the House of Lords the Justices of the Peace Qualification of Women BilJ. was read a second time, with the assent of the Government. It makes women eligible to sit as magistrates.