IMPERIAL POLITICS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 7, 3 January 1913, Page 5

IMPERIAL POLITICS.

LABOUR PARTY DISCIPLINE. (By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) (United Press Association.) London, January 1. The agenda paper of the Labour Party Conference, which opens on January 29, contains recommendations to ensure the loyalty of Labour members by withholding Whips temporarily or permanently. HOME RULE BILL. Mr. ' Hope’s amendment to the Home Rule Bill was defeated by 28S votes to 150. Sir Rufus Isaacs said that every legitimate safeguard had been taken to protect Britain in war time. WELSH DISESTABLISHMENT. A deputation of Welsh Radicals protested against the concessions under the Disestablishment Bill. Mr. McKenna, replying, affirmed that they were matters of justice, not concessions. The deputation was so incensed by the reply that its members refused to communicate it to the press. THE FOOD TAX PROBLEM. An informal referendum is proceeding among Unionist members of the House of Commons to ascertain the views of members on food taxes. THE QUESTION OF ULSTER. Sir E. Carson moved the amendment to the Home Rule Bill to exclude Ulster from the provisions of the measure. He denied making a compromise, but said it would be a danger to drive Ulster and turn the existing constitutions into a loathsome one, which would be abhorred. Mr. Asquith replied that the amendment would wreck the Bill. To exclude several Nationalist counties was not democratic legislation. To accept the claim of a section of Ulster was to veto the Bill. A HEATED DEBATE. London, January 2. Sir E. Carson said that Ulster claimed to stand where she was. She claimed to have done her best under the union, and claimed to have succeeded under it. It was for the Government if it could justify the turning out of Ulster. Ho pressed the Government to say whether they contemplated exercising force that the£ would never have dreamed of applying to Natal if she had refused to join the South African Union. If the Government had made up their'minds, he begged them to remember that no one could measure where the forces of disorder, il unloosed, would find their objective. Mr. Asqujth .said ,tha|i he was unable to specullte or jlay down contingent policies. He did not believe that when Ulster realised the solid protection the Bill afforded thatj she would do other than accept the Imperial decision. He ashed if the Bill were submitted to the electorates what, then, would be the attitude of the Unionists. Mr. that he was not influenced by the danger of civil war. The feeling was quite as strong over the 1869 Church Disestablishment Act, but nothing happened. He was prepared to go to any limit to meet the opposition, provided it was not inconsistent with national self-govern-ment.

Mr. Bonar Law said that disaster would follow carrying the Bill against Ulster’s will. The Government, in the event of war, would he gambling or; the possibility of the whole Nationalist feeling in Ireland changing, The dan ger would be lessened if there won two subordinate Parliaments, He ad vocated an amendment making it permissive for any country to remain out side Parliament. He believed that the loyalists would rather be ruled by a foreign country than by the Nationalists. If the Government would submit the Bill to the country he personally—and he believed he spoke for the Opposition—would not encourage any form of Ulster’s resistance, but if the Government forced the Bill he would $ , assist Ulster’s resistance.

Mr. Winston Churchill said that Mr Bonar Law made a surprising statement when he said that the loyalists preferred foreign rule. Sir E. Carson interjected: “Rather than be governed by moonlighters.”

Mr. Churchill: This is the latest Tory threat: “Ulster would secede to Germany.” (Uproar.) Mr. Churchill, amid constant heated interruption, taunted Mr. Bonar Law on 'his latest step in Imperial statecraft. Ho declared that no Oppositionist believed that the amendment was workable. It proposed to mete out to the Catholics of Ulster exactly the treatment which the Opposition regarded as cruel and unfair to Protestants elsewhere. The Unionist veto by violence was unjustified. The Bill bad to be passed three times, and long before the Irish Parliament could legislate oppressively there would be a general election. The people had a clear constitutional remedy without resort to threats of violence. The amendment was negatived by 291 votes 'to 197. TARIFF REFORM. (Received 8.10 a.m.) London, January 2. ‘The Times’ says that without taxing food, preference might be conceded in luxurnes, such as wine, tobacco or manufactures which the colonies could supply under the stimulus of a moderate tariff, there was also the possibilities of preference in regard to telegraph and finance, the latter, perhaps, being most important.

Mr. Edgar Speyer calculates that the Overseas now receive a financial preference of 1 per cent,, which is equivalent to ten millions annually.

NARRUNG’S SEAWORTHI NESS. (Received 11.10 a.m.) London, January 2. In the House of Commons, replying to Mr. Farrell, Mr. Robertson said the captain of the Naming stated she was a splendid ship. She was not a sister ship to the Waratah, and after being repaired, he saw no reason why she should not carry passengers to Australia. Mr. Farrell offered confidential documents relating to the Naming’s alleged unseaworthiness, and Mr. Robertson promised to peruse them. THE IMPERIAL SPIRIT. (Received 10.15 a.m.) Loudon, January 2. In the House of Commons, Colonel Seeley (Under-Secretary for War), i - plying to Mr. Gilbert Parker, enumerated the Imperial officers serving in Overseas, and said that the Government was doing its utmost to extend the interchange of officers.