BRITISH POLITICS.

West Coast Times, 21 March 1910, Page 3

BRITISH POLITICS.

LATEST CABLES

V REFORM OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS.

t eEB PUKS3 ASSOCIATION, —COP FRIGHT ]

LONDON, March 19. Mr Asquith, in a speech at Oxford, said the recent elections had created a position unforsecn by all and he and his colleagues, after hesitation, concluded it was their duty to remain in office. The Budget, he added, must be pressed forward with promptitude and despatch in order to sot right the unexampled financial confusion produced bj the Lords’ action. He contended that a rationally constituted Second Chamber was desirable and not a

chamber overwhelmingly and undisguisably partisan. The Lords during the reform debate showed a desire that that the ancient structure should be disguised with a coat of democratic whitewash. The Liberals, he said, demand a Second Chamber rebuilt on

a democratic basis, thus preventing a chronic deadlock. The legislative power of the country had declared itself predominantly Liberal and the absolute veto must go.

The Times, commenting on the speech, said Air Asquith and his friends meant to preserve the Second Chamber as a sham and screen the fact that it is a new democratic conception of English constitutional Government.

The Times states that the germ of the Government’s House of Lords Reform Bill will be found in Clause 63 of the South African Act.

W instou Churchill!, speaking at Manchester, said lie was not frightened hy the idea of a single chamber. He did not attach the importance to the question which some did. If a second chamber were established in the future it must be based on the votes of the great masses and the wage-earning population. The Government’s resolutions tabled on Tuesday were CampbellBannerman's, strengthened by Mr Asquith in one or two particul'are. The debate on the resolutions would commence on the twenty-ninth. The Budget, he added, has been misrepresented and misunderstood by Ireland, but the Lords must be made swallow both the veto and the Budget, and did not believe that Parliament would come to an untimely end through the Budget failing.

The Standard, summarising Lord Landsdowne’s second Chamber policy, considers the power Of veto would not he weakened. The .number of Peers would be reduced, hut the whole peerage would select the representatives of their own body and/others would sit without election hy virtue of their public services. The Government of the day would also select a number of peers with a tenure of office long enough not to be influenced hy general elections. The principal life peerages would be extended to cover the representation of all schools of political thought and the great interests of the country.

LONDON, March 19. Tiie Government is issuing 21 millions at three per cent Exchequer Bonds at 09) at a five years’ currency.