MR ASQUITH'S SPEECH.

Colonist, Volume LII, Issue 12767, 13 April 1910, Page 2

MR ASQUITH'S SPEECH.

A MODIFIED VETO.

NO IMMEDIATE CONSTITUTION-

AL CHANGES,

(Received April 12, 11.15 p.m.) London, April 12. Lord Hamilton of Dalzell, replying to Lord Stanhope, detailed, Australia's and Now Zealand's customs regime and old age pensions. Lord Stanhope then criticised what he described as "Lord Advocate Ureisms'.' regarding the possibility of imports meeting the expenditure on old age pensions.

In the House of Commons, Mr Asquith emphasised the point that the absolute veto of the House of Lords should remain untouched except where there was an overwhelmingly strong presumption that the House of Commons' decisions expressed, the people's opinion. He admitted that there were conceivable . actual cases where the decision of the House of Commons did not represent the opinion of the people, instancing the scratch majority banded together under the coercion of party exigencies for particular transient purposes, or a crumbling majority which had lost popular favour. Therefore a second chamber, even such as the present House of Lords had its uses, and ought to be allowed to exercise its powers to prevent an abuse of constitutional forms. He explained that according to the resolution there would be two years' delay between the introduction and fipal passing of a Bill, and under the new system it must be preceded by a general election. He added that though the preamble of the Veto Bill foreshadowed a change in the second chamber's constitution, this would take a long time, even under the most favourable circumstances, and hence the operative clauses would not travel beyond the resolutions.

Unionist newspapers quote Mr RedmondV statements that tho guarantees and not tho concessions were the cause of- the difficulty with the Cabinet, thus suggesting, that concessidLs in the Budget were obtainable.