NAVY LEAGUE'S ACTIVITY.

Colonist, Volume LI, Issue 12500, 29 March 1909, Page 2

NAVY LEAGUE'S ACTIVITY.

POSITION OF THE LABOR PARTY. ■■■■•■'. London, March 2(3. Labour Commoners have decided to vote against the censure motion, provided that the Cabinet on Monday announced that they would not go beyond "Mr Asquith's present position regarding warship construction. An enthusiastic meeting was held ao the Playhouse, Charing Cross, uiidei the auspices of the Navy League. It demanded that eight Dreadnoughts should be begun and completed at the errliost possible date. Lieutenant Bell&irs, M P., moved a resolution regietting that New Zealand's offer of a .battleship, as an immediate offer, had not been accepted, to enable the Government to ■' utilise it to mitigate the expenditure of 1910. F ■ The "Pall Mall Gazette" declares that Mr Asquith's method of fencing wJth New Zealand's offer has raised an ugly suspicion that while seeming to welcome the offer, the Government ary really mocking, and evading its purpose. The paper adds, that New Zealand never intended to replacb a vessel which, otherwise, would have been built by the .British taxpayers. If New Zealand's generosity were merely employed to further the aims of the "Little Navy" party, bitter indignation, would be provoked. Mr Keir Hardie, M.P., speaking at Scuth Norwood, declared that the Labour Party considered the colonial offers to assist the Navy was an insult tj the greatness and majesty of the Mother Country. There was no foundation for the miserable scare.