Arizona republican., 1914-06-08
Passage of Bill Disestab- fishing Church of England in Wales is One of First Victories for the Liberal Party
CLOSES FIGHT
 OF FORTY YEARS
Not Until H. H. Asquith, Who Introduced the First Bill. Became Prime Minis ter Was There Hope for the Measure
ASSOCIATED PRESS D1spArcHI

ASSOCIATED PRESS DISPATcH1 LONDON, June By the passage of the bill to disesstablsh the Church 1 of England in Wales the liberals reaped the first fruits of the parliament act which they passed to limit the veto power of the house of lords
 It is forty years since the non-con- formists of Wales commenced the movement to have the church discs tablished so far as their principality is concerned and just under twenty years since a liberal government introduced in the house of commons the first bill to carry out the wishes of these non conformists
 Like many liberal measures since the first disestablishment bill, passed the house of commons by a majority of A in house of 564, was thrown out by the house of lords. Not until H. H. Asquith, who, as home secretary, in trcduced that first bill, became prime minister and undertook the huge task of curbing the power of the upper chamber was there any hope of q bill to disestablished the church becoming q law. so strongly are the lords on the side of the established church in all matters of the kind Now however they have to bow to the inevitable Under the parliament act. the bin hay ing passed the house of commons three times, becomes law no matter what at- titude the house of lords takes
 It ,las been long hard fight for those who desired the disestablishment of the church Tn the first debate on the bill introduced by MT Asquith in 1895 the opposition was led by Mir. Bal four. who also spoke against the pres ent measure, and the then home sec retarY had to face all the then big guns of the conservative party. He had on his side. however. Joseph Chamberlain, then a strong advocate of disestablish ment but now with all his followers, an opponent of it. Mn. Asquith's labor on that occasion as that of many of his successors in after years, was vast ed. As soon as the bill reached the lords it was thrown out without any consideration. Now the lords are pow erless, except to make suggestions for amendments which are not likely to receive much considera ton from the Welsh members of the house of com mons, their liberal supporters, both
 non -conformist and churchmen, and above all the Irish nationalists, who voted regularly for the bill, perhaps not so much because they like it's prin 1 ciple as because of a desire to get it out of the way to give clear road i for the home rule bill.
 While home rule has attracted more
 attention on account of the opposition of a portion of Ulster, the Welsh 1 church bill has created almost as much | feeling between the two political par | ties, and between the church of Eng | land and the liberals. The Welsh lib
 erals, and with one or two exceptions 1 all members of the house of commons i from the principality are liberals, were 1 busy early and late urging the pas , sage of the bill and supporting candi- /, dates in constituencies throughout the kingdom pledged to vote for it. The bishops and their supporters were just as busy. In every bye election, organi- 1 zations opposed to disestablishment,
 entered the constituency to fight can didates who favored the bill, and lib- eral churchmen were particularly urged to go against their party on this meas ure. All this has counted heavily against the government and several ! bye elections have been influenced by | it. Mir Asquith has. however, gone i steadily forward, endeavoring to carry
 out the pledges he gave the Welshmen i twenty years a go to disestablish the church when it was in his power to do i so.
 1 Now that the disestablshment bill i has been passed it is believed that all 1 the old animosities aroused by it will 1 be buried The government at any rate l has taken the first step toward that l happy conclusion by appointing non partisan commission to carry out the provisions of the bill This commits sion is composed of Sir Henry Prm- rose, d civil servant of long and dis 1 tinguished service, who is a member of 1 the Episcopal church of Scotland: Sir 1 William Plender, a chartered account
 ant, member of the Church of England
 and Sir Herbert Roberts, a Welsh non- 1 conformist member of the house of l commons.
 The functions of the commission will 1 be judicial, administrative and actua- rial. They will have to determine the
 allocation of border parishes of Eng
 1 fish or Welsh diocesses; decide what is
 Welsh ecclesiastical property, which on
 the passage of the bill became vested
 in them; and they will have to dis
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