The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-18
VETO BILL REACHES A CRITICAL STAGE Is Now Possible House of Lords May Reject
 Measure

London, July 17-An entirely uneX- pected contingency confronts the ca reer| of the veto bill tonight. It is a possibility that the house of lords. in stead of passing the third reading oi | the bill with their amendments on Thursday, thus sending. it back to the house of commons for consideration may reject 1t entirely, even with amendments In that event, Premier Asquith Is fully expected to announce that he has advised the King to ere ate large block of new peers.
 The liberal party is no more anx- ious for an inflated peerage than the lords are, but will not balk at the ere ation of peers if the necessity is forced upon them. The parliamentary pro gramme of the liberals is, as the Right Hon. Walter Runciman, president of the board of education said in speech Saturday "the bill, the whole bill and nothing but the bill"
 Two moves in the lords game today excited. great speculation. One was a conference of the conservative leaders, the Marquis of Bansdowne, the Earl of Selbourne. Baron Middleton, the Mar quis of Salisbury and others. The sec ond was a strong appeal by Lord Nor ley of Blackburn to the, liberal lords. Lord Morley in a circular letter, said 1:
 Tt is possible that a certain num- Der of opposition peers may force di vision of the third reading of the par liamentary bill. The momentous re- suits at stake both immediate and in the future, make it in the highest de- gree desirable that no supporter of the bill should be absent from his place. I earnestly trust, therefore, that your iordships will not fail to give his maj esty's government the advantage of your presence on what may prove so truly critical an occasion"
 Considered Too Dangerous
 The rejection of the bill has never been part of the programme of the conservative leaders. The report went around today. however, that they would assume the attitude that the bill. even with the amendments, was so dangerous and revolutionary that they would refuse to have any hand in it's passage but would compel the liberal lords to take all the report by voting for its third reading.
 That aroused the fear that sufficient insurgent peers might he found to car ry a motion to reject the bill outright instead as Lord I.ansdowne desires the bill to go to it's third reading as amended It is Lord Morley's desire to have the liberal peers vote with the adnerents of Iansdown to support the third reading, because if the bill is reflected 1t would necessitate an au- tunln session of the house of commons to pass the veto bill again through the necessary stages to return it to the house of lords.
 group of extremist peers. esti- mated at from 50 to so, is sworn to fight the bill to the last ditch, and If 1t came to fight between them and the liberals the former would have a chance of winning
 Lord Morleys unusual appeal was at tributed by politicians to a threat to reject the bill. A great furry spread in political circles for a few hours but was succeeded by comparative calm The best opinion late tonight is that the lords will return the amended bill to the house on Thursday and give Pre- mier Asqufth an opportunity to show his hand when the house takes 1t up Monday, and that the premier will an nounce that the government refuses to accept the amendments and will. If necessary, call on the King to create new peers.
 Then a final struggle will come be- tween the two factions of the conser vative lords-the standpatters and those who believe the lesser of the evils will he to swallow the bill, with the expressed declaration that the con servatives will repeal it when they re- turn to power By accepting the bill they can stave off home rule for two years: by rejecting it they put the lib erals in position to adopt all the ex- tremist schemes of legislation without delay.
 There is no doubt that the govern ment has made up it's list of possible peers, the number of them, according to the latest belief being $50.
 The most remarkable feature of the revolution which is going on is the small interest the country at large dis
 
 CONTINUED ON PAGE 0.l