CONTINUANCE OF THE DEBATE.

Colonist, Volume LII, Issue 12768, 14 April 1910, Page 2

CONTINUANCE OF THE DEBATE.

THE AMENDMENT DEFEATED,

(Received April 13, 11.40 p.m.) London, April 13. Mr Winston Churchill, in reply to Mr Balf our, said the House of Lords had heretofore not proved a safeguard against great constitutional changes emanating from the Conservatives, instancing the extension of .household suffrage in 1867. He assured Mr Balfour that a plan of conferences would bo embodied in the Veto Bill or the policy following the Bill. Considering the immense bargaining and other powers which the House of Lords retained, it was nonsensical to accuse the Government of establishing a single chamber system. The Liberals unitedly desired the supremacy of the House of Commons in the State, and its predominance in legislation. Their idea of a reformed _ second chamber was one on democratic foundations and subordinate to the House of Commons. • Mr James Hope moved Mr F. Smith's amendment to exclude from tho operation of the resolution Bills further than Bills' affecting the House of Lords' constitution and powers. Mr Austen Chamberlain taunted the Government with an undemocratic desire to prevent appeals to the people. This roused cheers and counter cheers. Mr Dalziel's failure to elicit a reply from the Government as to whether the veto resolutions wouttd be abandoned when a reformed second chamber was established drew an impassioned comment from Lord Hugh Cecil, that the Government's reform policy was a sham and a fraud.

The amendment was negatived by 302 to 193.

Mr Churchill enumerated the measures the Government would endeavoured to pass if the Lords' veto was removed, including a national settlement with '' Ireland, disestablishment in Wales,the removal of Nonconformists' grievances, and the reform of the electoral system, which denied the; franchise to so many. He: added: The Unionists pledged us to war in South Africa on the cry of equal rights for whites. (Cheers.) That is. what we are seeking in the Motherland in order to make certain that the Liberal vote will count equally with the Conservative vote. If the resolutions are passed everything will advance smoothly, but there will be danger if they be not passed, but rejected.