IMPERIAL POLITICS.

Waikato Times, Volume 96, Issue 15353, 29 September 1923, Page 5

IMPERIAL POLITICS.

SPEECH BY MR ASQUITH. LIBERAL CAMPAIGN OPENED. A PESSIMISTIC UTTERANCE. Australian and N.Z. Cable Assn. > Received September 29. 12.3’0 p.m. Received September 29, 11 a.m. " LONDON, September 28. • Mr Asquitb, in inaugurating the Liberal autumn campaign, said the conditions abroad were serious’. The •peace treaties presented a sadly battered appearance. Though the League of Nations had performed great and lasting service to Europe and mankind, one of its fundamental articles had been openly flouted by a great signatory State. He hoped they had heard the last of the Council of Ambassadors, as it could always be used to oust the League. The Ambassadors’ Council’s reputation for justice and impartiality, and Italyte high-handed action against Greece showed that the sanctity of covenants and the authority of the League of Nations were at stake. They looked to ;the League to assert both, and if it did it would carry the support of the vast majority of people. He condemned the Treaty of Lausanne, which had recreated with new life the authority of the Ottoman power in Europe. Other treaties made had proved unworkable, with the result that revolutions and dictatorships everywhere were the order of the day. He condemned the Government’s handling of reparations and the Ruhr occupation, and asked wiiat was the Government’s policy. The occupation of the Ruhr by France had been made at the cost of the Allies, who as the result of Germany’s collapse were worse off than at the beginning of the year. He was anxious for the reconstruction of the Entente, but if it is to be reconstructed it must not be on the lines proclaimed by M. Poincare, but on lines carrying the prospect of a final settlement of European troubles within the horizon of practical politics. Dealing with homo politics', Mr Asquith said the conditions were equally disquieting. The country’s domestic situation was one or as great delicacy and perplexity as any he remembered. Taxation since 1915 had been quadrupled, oversea trade reduced by 35 per cent., and unemployment was now double what it was in the greatest depression for a decade preceding the war. The protectionists had come out into the open with a challenge which the Liberals accepted. The duties imposed for war purposes while Mr R. McKenna was 'Chancellor of the Exchequer had been retained. Imperial preference was being introduced in homeopathic doses. Mr Asquith declared that the Idea of a self-supporting Empire was chimerical, and he concluded by thanking God that the Liberals were not responsible for the transactions of the past four years.