SPEECHES BY PARTY LEADERS.

Colonist, Volume LIII, Issue 12975, 14 December 1910, Page 3

SPEECHES BY PARTY LEADERS.

THE PRESENT POSITION.

(Received Dec. 14, 0.5 a.m.) ■ ;!-»^ i;, . "^ ptondon, Dec 13. .Mr Balfour, speakiiig;>t..,Dartford,T said the threat of the Radical majority to carry- the Parliament Bill and thereby settkj. the matter of a single^ chamber parliament was a. boast which* was not going to end the matter. The "Unionists would not submit to such a prepostorous scheme hastily < cooked and throwii at the heads of the 'two Houses. The. Liberals avoided reference to Home Rule until 500. seats had been fought". It was an outrage oi the democracy that .the Government only announced an immediate Homt Rule Bill on Thursday. This . was n plot to prevent the country pronouncing judgment. . . Mr Asquith, speaking at Stowmarket, declared tliat Jlo procedure vra-r more entitled to be called a referenduir than the present election. A simpler, claaner and clearer issue had never been presented to the country, lhe issue was, Should the people's representatives be supreme over legislator as th«y already were over finance and policy? What was the good of a representative system if: it were superseded by constant appeals to people on every issue of magnitude and importance. ' , •"",.- j Mr Winston Churchill, speaking ai Parkstoncv, said the party strife would jiot abate until "the veto had been abolished. The approaching Coronation should be a season of concord among all the parties and creeds participating. ■ ,'; , Mr Lloyd George, speaking at Newton, said, an effort was being made to fnghtm th* peopleover Home Rule. No Bill was ever proposed giving the Irish Parliament the slightest power over religion. The Government would hava a majority of a hundred, which would be quite enough to bury the Lords. . The position- of parties is now as follows:— GCSrERNMENT; England : 172 -:; rlWales :■_--■ %k Scotland . ' 30 . Ireland — " ' - Redntwidites 9<3 '"•"■ P'Brienitos " .5 J " J Total"":-* : " "■ ~3^ England 203 Wales . ■'.;. 2 ■Scotland 8 Ireland I 6 Total ' ■ 229 "\ Seats still vacant, 122.