TRENCHANT SPEECH.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCIV, Issue 14659, 29 January 1912, Page 5

TRENCHANT SPEECH.

MR BONAE LAW

ATTACKS THE GOVERNMENT. ROUSES TECE OPPOSITION. Press Association—By Tol.—Copyright. (Received C.o p.m., Jail. 28fch.) LONDON, Jan. 26. Mr Bouar Law addressed a packed and enthusiastic meeting at the Albert Hall. He sakl the Gorerument could not keep going at the present pace; the result wouid be either the destruction of the Government or tho ruin of the country. The Cabinet- had played Faust to Mr Redmond's Mephistophrles uud now were called upon to redeem their bond. Tho disestablishment of of the Church in Wales was an act of destructive violence. He appealed t>> Unionist Freetraders to choose botwoen tariff reform and LloydGeorgo 3ni. GENERAL INCOMPETENCE, *j ho country had had enough oi* tho present Government. The lane had been long, but the turning was visible. Failuro and incompetence marked every step of the wild men who had control of the Radical party. He had trustful Sir Henry Campbell Bannerman, bufc he did not trust the present Premier, who was being driven without resistance faster down the slope. There was never a whisper of competent criticism from tho Government benches. Critics were promptly collared and made peers, Irmghts, or front bencl.men. Wales had thirty members. and eighteen had been honored, from a peerage to a job. The Labour puviy had lost its influoncs bornese it was in the OnvernmerfV. rocket. On ?he other side the Government had r-old the cms:itutioji and found themselves in the Nationalist pocket. ARMY AND NAVY. There wero tremendous transf-ji* motion without- e>:ph:iiat.on before Christmas. Mr Churchill had had enough oi Stepney Sieges and Gentle Shepherd';, and had gono to the Admiralty. Mr McKenna had had enough of Archer Shoe and Charles Berc-sford. Both desired t-o begin a new leaf. Lord Haldane s method of strengthening the Regulars was by a reduction of 20.009 men, and ho similarly reduced tho Auxiliaries by 30,000, and all were armed with inferior weapons to other nations. FOREIGN AFFAIRS. "While not joining in tho senseless attack on Sir E. Grey by his own Press, it was a fact that the Morocco incident ended to tho advantage of France while we got ail the iU-wiii. We had drifted to tho verijo of war because responsible Ministers led foreign nations to believe that the Government would never assert their rights by loree. Mr Lloyd George's Man-ion House speech saved us from war. l»rt accentuated Germany's ill-will. Tt would require a creneratron of s.;ne statesmanship to i ve it down. WASTEFUL EXPENDITURE. The Radicals had increased the national expenditure to the extent ef i'ort3' millions annually, nuieli of it upon a swarm oi' now oi':i>-ials aumboring nearly thousand, halt of whom V.erc appointed without competition. IlovolutiGnary ;;overm:'.pnts wore always corriij.it £,ovcr:ii:ie',ie. Caj:-.tai was loaTing tho country i,i an cxU-r.i; unknown in its previous history. T!;;;ro schemed to bo no bottom to tho drop in Consols. Tho Governmc-nt. had liitlic: to bec-n preparing machinery for its own destruction, which would como into operation t:xt- session. FEiIALE SUFFRAGE. The Premier told them that woj lan sufirai-e v/ould ho a national disasr-or, yet he expressed his willingness to , -i'petrate that disactor. Ho asked had ever Sritish statGsjnaiiship fal.eu so low ? HOME RULE. Reviewing tho Jlinisterial progrnr:\nio, lie said ho believed the Co.vernxuent was already in diflcuHies over eonstnioting a Bill acceptable to Ireland, and possibly to En-land. What humbugs these peoplo were. They employed trickery and the methods of the artful dodger. Their methods last session were a. dsigraes to any Government, and a degradation to the House of Commons. pir Churchill was Home before lie succeeded 3Tr JleK.juua at the Admiralty. The siepo" referred to was tho of a block of buildings in Sydney street. Loudon, in which anarchists took refuge and defied the polite in January, Kill The '-Gentle Shepherd" is t.'ne •'Dartmouth Shepherd." who figurad lar-vlv m the last elc.-t-on camna-iirn. Mr 1 Churchill took pity on ail anciont pis- ' oner at Dartmoutb, whose sent?nee he denounced and had commuted. It was shown that tho man had had a long criminal careet, and he vas in gaol ae.ain on oth?r charged. In the Ar.hcr-She.i judgment vas gi%"en against the Government on a claim for heavy damages for ihe wrongful dismissal of a cadet from a I naval college.]