The Spokane press. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1902-1939, 1910-02-20
KING EDWARD
AND ASQU|TH
Z FACE PUZZLE
While Parties War Over
Finance Bill, Asquith
Refuses to Accept
+ Office.
KING SUSTAINS PEERS
Between Power of the King
and Fear of Revolt
Asquith Is Powerless.
BY CHARLES p. STEWART
London Correspondent Of the
United Press.


London Correspondent Of the
United Press.
LONDON, Feb. 19.-When par
Lament gets fairly down to bust
ness next Monday it will be up to
King Edward and Premier
Asquith to deal with the most
tangled situation ever known in
English politics.
Here is the position. A house Of
commons passes a finance bill by
the, biggest majority ever recorded.
Against all constitutional practice
the house of lords throws it out.
Premier Asquith refers the matter
to the electorate. Furthermore, he
implicitly declares that he will not
accept office again until the legis-
lative veto of the lords Is removed
and every vestige of power of in
reference in finance is similarly
removed from the lords.
The election takes place. But as
in every English general election,
thousands of small local matters
obscure the great point and every
other subject under the sun Is talk
ed about rather than the main is
sue. In this case Asquith's oppo-
nents had no wish to fight on his
ground. They preferred to fight
on their own.
ANTAGONISTS ARE EQUAL
The house of lords question was
never fairly answered. In every
country district the conservatives
swept the board on the matter of
protection. Similarly in the great
towns the liberals more than held
their ground because of their ad-
hesion to free trade. And SO the
elections finished thus:
Liberals, 275; Labor, 40; Con-
servatives, ats: Nationalist, II,
following Redmond; Nationalists,
II, following O'Brien.
This means the liberals and con-
servatives, the two great antagon-
lists, are equal. The balance of
power Is held by the laborites and
natiOnalists. On many matters the
liberals will get their undivided
support. Trusting to this, they
have taken office. But the laborites
and Redmond group can throw
them out when they please.
With precariOus support of this
kind, how is Asquith going to carry
out drastic reforms?
This much is certain: Liberals,
Redmond's followers and labor
men are united on the points that:
In administration and finance
the elected representatives of the
people shall have absolute con-
troll and in legislation the final
and deliberate will Of the people
shall prevail.
NOT ALL SATISFIED
This is all very well so far as it
goes. But it only satisfies the
moderate branch of the liberals.
The rest want something far more
drastic. They want to see the
house of lords. in it's present form,
swept away altogether.
This is where King Edward
comes in. He does not want
complete end made to the peers.
So far back as last April he said
to Asquith: II don't want to be the
only hereditary institution left in
this country" And Just at present
King Edward holds the key to the
situation.
The only way to destroy the
house of lords Is by legislation. For
this to become law 1t must be pass
edS by the peers themselves. In
fact the lords will be asked, more
or less politely, to commit political
hariekari.
Disappointing as 1t may be to
the liberals. the lords although
probably the most ridicuously in
efficient body of legislators the
world has ever seen. will refuse to
do anything of the kind. Then
there will be only one way out.
Sufficient new peerages will have
to be created to swamp the present
tory majority in the. house of
lords.
1t was a threat of this kind that
brought the peers to their senses
after they had twice rejected the
great reform bill of 1882. But that
CAD WAS different from the pres
ent one, the bill had the united
support of the country behind It
with the exception of small group
of landed aristocrats.
Obviously. as result OF the re-
cent election, Premier Asquith can
hardly 60 SO far as to claim this
much for his policy. And should
he ask King Edward to take this
course the latter might easily re-
fuse. declaiming Asquith's support
is not sufficiently strong to war
rant 1t.
KING REsENTs ACTION OF
LORDS
II Is no longer a secret in Great
Britain that King Edward bitter
ly resented the action OF the lords
in throwing out the budget. II Ii
now known that he fiercely resouts