BRITISH POLITICS.

Colonist, Volume LII, Issue 12768, 9 February 1910, Page 3

BRITISH POLITICS.

THE LORDS' VETO. EIGHT HOURS ACT. IRISH CATHOLICS AND ENGLISB POLITICIANS. [VftfibS ASSOOUTION — COPVBIOUT.J London, Fcb 8. ■ - Mr G. H. Roberts, M.P., the Laboui party's whip, says that the party will assist the Government if it abolishes both tho financial and the legislative veto of the House of Lords. Mr Richard Bell, the railway labour leader, in a letter to the newspapers, says that the Eight Hours Act had caused all-round disappointment. The coal output had been limited by it, increasing- the cost by Is or Is 6d a ton. Workers were thoroughly dissatisfied owing- to tho restrictions of their wage earning capacity, and also with the friction resulting from the rearranged shifts. The Rt. Rev. Edward O'Dwyer, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Limerick, in a pastoral, countermands an alliance between Irish Catholics and members of Parliament with the English parties because many English politicians were avowed Atheists and Socialists, especially iv their views on tho education question. Mr O'Brien, M.P., states that he has re-entered politics because a campaign of vengeance against twenty of his friends took tho form of packing tho Irish National Convention for the selection of candidates, with delegates from specially manufactured branches of the United Irish League. He was willing for a round table conference between the Irish party on 1 condition that the "Molly Maguires" were re- | moved from the mastery of tho Irish national fund. Mr Lloyd George, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Mr C. F. Masterman, Under-Secretary to the Home Offico, who .have been staying at Nice, interviewed Mr Asquith at Cannes. Mr Lleyd George's presence in tho Riviera has- aroused much comment. Unionists interpret it as an effort by the Radical extremists to influence Mr Asquith's decision of policy regarding the Lords.