THE OLD COUNTRY.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLI, Issue 6, 5 August 1908, Page 6

THE OLD COUNTRY.

After an all-night sitting, the Moderates carried a resolution abolishing the Works Department of the London County Council. Mr. Wm. Weddels, of the well-known meat and produce agency, has been appointed a member of the committee appointed to inquire into the existence of a foreign “ring” controlling meat supplies and prices in Great Britain. The Workmen’s Unemployed Act was renewed until the Poor Law Commission issues its report, after Mr. John Burns, President of the Local Government Board had threatened that the £200,000 a year for the unemployed would lapse if the Act were allowed to expire. Old Age Pension Bill Passed. In the House of Commons, after the Speaker had admitted that it was a breach of privilege, the amendment moved in the House of Lords by Lord Cromer, limiting the dirration of old age pensions to six years, was deleted. Lord Killanin’s amendment to the Irish Universities Bill was also deleted. The House of Lords acquiesced in the amendments made in the Commons, and passed both bills, but in the case of the Pensions Bill, by 37 votes to 23, adopted a resolution by Lord Lansdowne, declaring that while not insisting on the amendments previously made, the Lords did not accept the reasons offered by the House of Commons, nor consent to their being hereafter drawn into a precedent. The bill, it was contended, was not one granting aids or supplies, and involved a question of policy, affecting the treatment of necessitous persons wherein both Houses were concerned. Another Tariffite Win. The by-election for <he Haggerston division of Shoreditch, rendered vacant by the death of Sir Wm. R. Cremer, resulted in the return of the Hon. Rupert C. K. Guinness, Conservative, who polled 2867 votes. J. Warren, Radical, polled 1724 votes, and Burrows, the Socialist candidate, 987. The elected candidate is a convinced tariff reformer.

'A body of two thousand Social Democrat* assisted Burrows in his canvas* Bing. Defence Expenditure. Anon-politiral Parliamentary Committee is being formed to support the maintenance of a strong navy. On the other hand, Mr. Asquith has received an appeal signed by 144 of his supporters for the reduction of armaments. The appeal emphasised the need for a survey of the situation, and figures in the Budget statement for 1906-7. Sir J. Brunner, Liberal member for Cheshire, Mr. J. A. MacDonald, Liberal member for Falkirk Burghs, were authors of the appeal. A Labour Protest. Mr. Will Crooks (Labour member for Woolwich) has given notice of motion that, having voted £50,000 to Lord Cromer, in recognition of his services in Egypt, the House is of opinion that he does not need a Government pension of £9OO, and expresses the opinion that it should cease in 1915. The motion was received with Labour cheers. “ Right to Disobey.’* In the House of Commons Mr Reginald McKenna (First Lord of the Admiralty) cruisers Good Hope and Argyll to perform a certain evolution during the North Sea manoeuvres would not have involved danger to the vessels, but that Rear-Admiral Sir Percy Scott, who was informed Viscount Castlereagh that the Admiralty were satisfied that Admiral Lord Charles Beresford’s signal to the in charge of the Good Hope, was justified in turning his ship the other way, believing that the order involved risk. Mr. McKenna stated that Admiral Beresford had so informed Rear-Admiral Scott at the time. The statement was received with cheers. Asiatics In tbe Colonies. In the House of Commons, Colonel Seely (Under-Secretary for the-Colonies), on a motion for adjournment to October 12, admitted that the question of Asiatics in the colonies was overwhelmingly important. The whole future of the Empire, he said, depended on present steps, and a false move might shatter it. Britain ought not to adopt a superior tone towards the colonies, with whom the question was more acute than here. “We are bound to admit that the self-governing colonies can exclude whom they will,” he went on, “and we could not interfere. But certain principles might be laid down. If immigrants are admitted they must sooner or later, be given civil rights. They must be admitted free or not at all.” If the self-governing colonies sought to exclude Britishr subjects, owing to economic reasons, to prevent wages from being cut down, or because of climatic conditions or social antipathy, causing riots, they ought at any rate to treat with the utmost generosity coloured immigrants already there. The Imperial Government asked that for them, and the request had been met by Canada in the friendliest spirit. He was confident that the Governments of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa would show the same spirit, realising the necessity for mutual forbearance. Colonel Seely said he agreed that an Imperial Secretariate should take tho matter up. He believed it was necessary to make the Secretariate real, namely, a clearing-house of the Empire, where all tho different laws might bo examined and reported on, enabling every part of the Empire to know what was being done in other parts. Sir Gilbert Parker (Conservative member for Gravesend) said it was essential that the structure of the national life should be built from the beginning by •whites, as otherwise it would be rott-n. Colonel Seely’s words would be re-echoed in every corner of the Empire. He commended tho Government for taking tho right view in appealing to the colonies and conferring with them. Britain and Germany. Replying to criticism, Sir Edward Grey ((Foreign Secretary) was cheered emphatically in the House of Commons on July 27, on declaring that it was very undesirable that any section of opinion in

Great Britain should represent British policy as aiming at the isolation of Germany. “It is no part of our policy to isolate any Power,” he remarked, adding, however, that watchfulness regarding the Congo and Persia was a national duty. Addressing a meeting in Queen’s Hall in connection with the Universal Peace Conference, Mr. Lloyd-George (Chancellor of the Exchequer) deprecated ths mutual distrust of Britain and Germany. Mr. Lloyd-George said: “The only real thing is the naval expenditure. We started it. We had an overwhelming preponderance at sea, yet we were not satisfied. We said, ‘Let there be Dreadnoughts.’ What for! We did not require them. Nobody else was building them. “Moreover, we always claim the need of a two-Power standard for defence. Germany, whose army is her sole defence against invasion, has no two-Power standard. “It is deplorable that two great progressive nations like Britain and Germany should be unable to establish a good understanding. We have done this with France, Russia, and America. Why should we not rope Germany in ? (Cheers.) “The money spent on armaments might then be spent on fighting intemperance, ignorance, crime, and disease, which are worse enemies than Germany. The Labour party’s executive has invited German workmen to co-operate in defeating war propaganda and the spreading of unlnendly suspicions. They aro urged to assist to secure permanent good relations between the two nations. In the House of Commons Mr. R. McKenna (First Lord of the Admiralty), replying to questions, agreed with Mr. J. C. Wason (Liberal member for Orkney and Shetland, and formerly a member of the New Zealand House of Representatives), in deprecating invidious comparisons between British a,nd German navies. The Blackmail Charge. Tho trial of Robert Sutton Sievier on a charge of blackmailing J. B. Joel, the South African magnate, has concluded. Lord Chief Justice Alverstone commented upon the conflicting nature of the evidence, and left the jury to decide whether Sievier attempted to extort money within the meaning of the Act. If Joel were seeking to obtain through Mills a promise from Sievier to abstain from publishing libels, said His Lordship, that was not extorting. The jury acquitted Sievier. A great demonstration in favour of Sievier in the Court and the surrounding streets followed the announcement of the verdict. Flea for Imperial Federation. The Hon. Wm. Kidston. Premier of Queensland, was the guest of the corporation of Glasgow at a luncheon. He appealed for emigrants of the old stock, self-reliant men who would be able to hold a new country as their forefathers had defended the Old Land. He was pleased that the Motherland was looking to her children for help. She did not want Australia to go for engines or machinery to Germany, but where did tho Motherland get her butter? They talked about an Imperial Parliament, but there was no Imperial Parliament. How could a great Empire, be placed on a healthy permanent footing with a local Parliament at Westminster not representing those portions outside Britain? He trusted that British statemen and people would tabs the first great step in the direction of giving a Federal Constitution to the Empire. Labour and the Franchise. The National Labour Conference, convened by the Social Democratic party, is being held in London, 150 delegates attending under tho presidency of Mr. Will Thorn, Labour member for Woolwich. The Conference resolved that no democratic electoral reform bill would be satisfactory unless it extended the franchise to every adult man and woman. “ Sweated ” Labour. The report of the Committee of the House of Commons set up to take evidence and report on tho condition of workers who were employed on piece work in their own homes, has been published. The Committee recommends legislation in regard to registration of home-workers and a definite enactment concerning the

wages of some of the workers engaged in the tailoring, shirting, underclothing, and several other trades. It also recommends the establishment of Wages Boards, on lines similar to those in existence in Victoria, to fix minimum wages.