IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

West Coast Times, 26 June 1912, Page 3

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

OUR CABLED ITEMS

THE SURPLUS AND THE NAVY,

fPEi; PRESS ASSOCIATION. —COP VRIGHT. ]

LONDON, Juno. 25.

In the House of Commons the Rt. Hon. David Lloyd. George said that without anticipating; Air. Churchill's statement regarding the surplus, the additional sum Mr. Churchill would a;k for would not exceed £1.000,000, hut further heavy payments would fail duo in subsequent years as the result of the programme Mr. Churchii! thought it necessary to outline. The Government have paid off £75,000,000 of the National debt, therefore the insufficient payment did not account for the decline in Ccn-

sobs. The Rt. Hon. Austen Chamberlain approved of the disposal of the surplus Feiv Chancellors, he said, had been able to rc-acquiro Consols at so small an expenditure and a variety of causes led to the low price. Tbe credit of the country was bound to suffer while the Government piled up liabilities for the future.

IRRESISTIBLE DEMANDS. LONDON, June 25. ilr, 11. H. Asquith declared that social reform and tbe navy involved demands which no Government could resist, yet those bad boon accompanied, pari passu, by an unprecedented payment off the debt. Trade was picspcrous and there was nothing to cause the least disquiet. THE NAVY AND THE FIRST LORD. LONDON, June 25. It is expected that Mr. Churchill will make a supplementary naval statement in a fortnight. The ‘•Times” in an article entitled “The Admiralty and the Empire,” says the North Sea is the now centre naval strategy. A victory there vruld leave Britain easy mastery of the other European seas, ncrerthe-l-'t there must ho no loosening of the Mediterranean, which so closely involved Britain’s food supply. Britain cannot share the position, oven with the friendliest ol Powers. The paper hopes that Mr. Churchill s Imperial squadron scheme will b- worked out immediately in preference to any contribution from the Dominions to the imni!(:liate battle power of the (loot in English waters. The security of the Empire depends on solving the problem of tho union i'll - defence. It also asserts that the Dominions cannot long ho expected to accept a system wherein they have no voice. Britain wants partnership far more than support.

TEA DUTY. LONDON, June 25. In the House of Lords a motion to reduce the tea duty in favour of Bi itish-grown was negatived by 199 to 177. GOVERNMENT OF INDIA. LONDON, June 25. The Government of India Bill was read a third time after the Earl of Crewe, in replying to Lord Cnrzon, had denied that there was any intention of granting .autonomy on the Overseas Dominions.

CHINA AND OPIUM. LONODN, Juno 25. 'I ho Unionist Members of the House of Commons are questioning the India Office, regarding the opium merchants protests to Lord lUHinge (\ic-r,-, v „| India) respecting the wholesale resumption of opium culture in China since the revolution. The Hon. E. S. Montagu, (Secretary for India Office) replied that Britain had protested to China, whose inability to enforce the Treaty obligations in the provinces must delay recognition by the now Government.