The Annual Register 1914: A Review of Public Events at Home and Abroad for the Year 1914Anonymous
History
The Annual Register 1914: A Review of Public Events at Home and Abroad for the Year 1914
Anonymous
History, Modern; History, Modern -- Periodicals; World War, 1914-1918
The Parliamentary conflict was resumed when the Prime Minister
introduced a resolution (May 12) to dispense with discussion on the
Committee stage of the Home Rule, Welsh Church, and Plural Voting
Bills, and on the financial resolutions necessary for the two former
measures. The discussion on the financial resolutions, he said, had
proved valueless in 1913; and the so-called "suggestion stage" was
intended to apply only to exceptional cases--to the correction of some
error or oversight, or to amendments consistent with the principle
and purpose of the Bill in question. But the Opposition declined any
responsibility for the Home Rule Bill, so that the consideration of
suggestions was nugatory. The only proper way of carrying out an
agreed settlement, for which he hoped, was by an Amending Bill. The
House would be asked to give the Home Rule Bill a third reading before
Whitsuntide, but the Government would go forward another step, and make
itself responsible for an amending Bill, which might pass--perhaps not
in its original shape--practically at the same time as the Home Rule
Bill. As to the Welsh Church Bill, the suggested amendments, which
seemed to have been put down as part of a concerted policy, would
completely transform the Bill into a measure which the House could not
accept. The House of Lords might amend these Bills if it liked, and the
Commons would consider their amendments. To the Plural Voting Bill no
amendments were suggested. The course proposed evoked protests from the
Opposition, and Mr. Bonar Law (U.), in a bitter speech, declared that
the Parliament Act had taken the interest out of the debates. Ministers
did not trouble to attend, and great damage had been done to the House
and still more to the representative system. The forces which would
decide the Home Rule question were outside the House. He charged the
Government with a change of front on the suggestion stage with regard
to the Welsh Church Bill; whether they had it or not now depended on
the House of Lords. It would be quite possible to let the Chairman
select suggested amendments for discussion. As to the projected
Amending Bill, he saw less hope of a settlement than there had been six
months earlier; the Government must either (1) submit the Bill to the
country, (2) coerce Ulster, (3) or exclude Ulster. While refusing all
responsibility for Home Rule, the Unionists, if it were to be carried,
would do their best to help the Government to carry it without civil
strife. The only conversations of any interest would be those between
the Prime Minister and Mr. Redmond. He attributed the Ministerial
refusal to disclose the Amending Bill to Mr. Redmond's insistence that
the Home Rule Bill should pass before Whitsuntide, so as to strengthen
the Nationalist position. When it had passed, however, the Nationalist
members would find it difficult to make concessions, and the Ulstermen
would have no confidence that the Amending Bill would pass, and so
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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