Imperial Politics

Waikato Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5222, 4 February 1913, Page 3

Imperial Politics

THE L/INMUESTION DIFFERENCE IN POLICY. I London, February 3. j Mr Lloyd George, in his speech at | the National Liberal Club, denied the suggestion that the Government conducted a clandestine inquiry into the private, personal allairs of the landowners with a view to making attacks on their political opponents. He said that the Government merely filled in the gaps in the incomplete reports of previous investigations. It was impossible to get unlettered evidence, he said, through official inquiries. The result! of the inquiry would soon he published, and he forecasted startling results. He alleged that hundreds of thousands, if not millions of men, were employed on the land under conditions which ought to make the great Empire hang its head with shame. Workers were not paid enough to keep their wives and children above | semi-starvation, and the land was j held under conditions which would j discourage capital and brains being 1 invested in its development. Many rural workers had been driven into the towns by the depression of wages, and had thus created unemployment. The remedy ought to cover both country and town labour. It was everybody’s interest, he added, to see that the land was placed on a business fooling.

The Daily Mail interprets the speech as an indication of differences between Mr Asquith and Mr Lloyd George regarding the Liberal party’s programme for next session.