The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-09-03
Recent Political Incidents in Britain.

Recent Political Incidents In Britain
When the British Parliament adj
journed It was taken for granted that
public men and party organs would be
relieved from the necessity OF discussing
the home and foreign policies OF the
Bannerman Government during the va
cation. As q matter OF fact no fewer than
four Incidents have since occurred, three
OF which have an important bearing On
the actual and prospective internal pro-
gramme Of the Liberal Administration,
while the critical condition Of affairs in
Persia and the attempt Of Germany to
secure a foothold there have directed
Earnest attention to the need Of safe
guarding Britain's strategic and CONNER
cial interests In that buffer kingdom.
We begin with an incident affecting
the future relations OF the Liberals to
organized labor, because the concilia-
ton not only OF the independent Labor
ties, but also Of their pledged coadjutors
In the Government ranks, was recog-
nized as the primary and dominant
business OF the FIRST session Of the new
Parliament. 1t might have been sup
posed that the Laborites would have
remained q~uiescent for a while after
obtaining from Premier BANNERMAN the
passage of a bill materially extending
the right Of workmen to compensation
for injury, a bill prohibiting the impor-
tation Of alien labor under contract to
take the place Of British workmen dur
ing a strike, which bill, however, in
spite Of it's unanimous adoption in the
lower house was thrown out ~contemptu-
ously by the Lords, and q trades dis
putes bill, which practically guarantees
to the funds of trade unions O total
immunity from actions at law for dam
ages, and which although it failed to
reach at the last session a final vote is
certain hereafter to get a large majority
in the Commons. Far from being sat-
isfied with these considerable conoes-
sions the Laborites have simply been
emboldened to make % sweeping
demands. The programme Of the Thir-
ty-ninth Trade Union Congress, which
opened on September 1, has been
agreed upon and published, and there
is no doubt that its principal features
will meet with approval and be pressed
upon the Liberal Ministry. Among the
features Of the Labor programme which
will be regarded by many Liberals
as intolerable exactions are the estab-
lishment Of q national citizen force on
the avowed ground that such a force
would constitute the best means Of
securing freedom from capitalist OPP
preston, and the naturalization Of all
railways, canals, mines and minerals in
the United Kingdom. The mere agita-
ton Of such projects is certain to widen
and deepen the breach already threat
ened between Liberals and Laborites,
although VIGOROUSLY their failure to
unite upon a candidate has just cost
them at q by-election the seat which had
been occupied by the late Sir WILFRID
LAWSON. It was foreseen that the
Bannerman Government might have
trouble with the Incorporating friends
Of Irish Home Rule, but It begins TO
look a if the Laborite partner would be
more aggressive than the Nationalist.
No fair minded onlooker disputes that
the new education bill, although at the
outset It bore the aspect OF q sectarian
answer to a sectarian attack, has been
developed by amendments and con-
cessions into something like a national
and permanent settlement OF the relig-
ious education difficulty. As Mr.. La
BoUcHERR has pointed out, it il absurd
to assert that the judgment rendered
the other day by the Court Of Appeal on
the education act OF 1902 renders the
proposed new law sup~erhuous. That
tribunal did not say, because 1t was not
called upon to decide the point, that
Mr.. BALFoUR's intention TO make local
authorities pay out Of the rates for
UNCONVENTIONAL teaching in the so-called
"no~n-provided, /. e., the old voluntary
schools, could not legally be carried out:
all 1t declared was that the intention was
not, az a matter Of fact, carried out in
the statute framed by the Balfour Gov
eminent. 1t Ia true that II the act Of 1902
were allowed to remain upon the statute
book the managers Of non-provided
schools would now be constrained to
pay out Of their own pockets for relig-
ious instruction, but other important
demands Of the Nonconformists would
remain unfulflled, namely, the abolition
OF all religious tests for teachers and
the establishment Of full public control
over the management Of all rate sup
ported schools. An attempt, therefore,
will still be made by the Banperman
Government to push its new education
bill through the House Of Lords, though
nobody expects it to be sanctioned by
that body without amendments highly
Objectionable to the Commons.
II IL not surprising that Mr.. WALTER
LONG, in a speech on August 20 before
the Unionist Alliance, should have chal-
lenged the Government to announce
openly It's policy on the Home Rule
question. No well informed politician
in Britain doubts that there is ample
- OF