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Haverfordwest Young Liberals.

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Haverfordwest Young Liberals. CELEBRATING THE PASSING OF THE BUDGET. THE FIGHT WITH THE LORDS. LAST NIGHT'S MEETING. A well-attended public meeting, arranged by the Haverfordwest branch of the League of Young Liberals, was held in the Temperance Hall last evening, when the principal speakers were Mr Garlield Hancock, of the National Executive of the League of Young Liberals, and Mr D. Gill Jones, Mil ford Haven. Mr H. E. H. James, B.A., presided, and there were also on the platform: Mr A. B. Williams, Mr Seeley and Mr Howard Jenkins. PEMBROKESHIRE FOR LIBERTY. The Chairman, in the course of a witty and vigorous speech, alluded to the crisis through which we had just passed. After the "end of all thil I', came the re-construction. Mr James re-called how in the past Pembrokeshire had stood gallantly on the side of liberty. It was the only Welsh county which, at the time of the Revolution, stood on the side of the Parliamentarians. Haverfordwest, and even Tenby, were at that time true to the principles and the spirit of English liberty. Alluding to the pretensions of the Peers, the Chairman said that one of the main objects of the Liberal Party to-day was to make such a deadlock as was occasioned by the rejection of the Budget for ever impossible again. The Chairman explained that he presided in the absence of the president, Mr Walter Roch. Mr Campbell, the hon. secretary, had received a telegram from Mr Roch expressing extreme regret at his inability to be present. Mr Hancock, at the outset, explained the objects of the League. The League was started to stimulate studies of national importance—historical, industrial and social. They wished to help Liberalism generally, because the Liberal creed came nearest to their social and political programme, and they united together for mutual aid and assistance. It was also a League of Yotitig Liberals," but they placed the broadest interpretation on the word young. They confined it absolutely to those who were young in spirit. Referring to the progress the League had made since its formation, Mr Hancock said there were now 400 branches in the country with 40,000 members. (Applause). He hoped that the local branch would organise debates with a view to bringing out and training local speakers who afterwards would be able to speak at open air gatherings and address village meetings. He under- stood that there were many Tories in certain rural districts in the county who needed conversion. (Laughter). The speaker emphasised the impor- tance of distributing political literature, and he mentioned that the League would shortly issue a paper dealing exclusively with League affairs. The League was absolutely independent of any party, but they found that the Liberal programme was substantially theirs. Let them make a clean fight, and tight bard. "Dirty" politics found no support in the League. Dealing with the principal events in l the political world, Mr Hancock said that I THE PASSING OF THE BUDGET was a triumph in two respects, It was a triumph for democratic legislation, and it was a personal triumph for our great countryman Mr Lloyd George. (Loud applause.) Things had been said concerning the Chancellor of the Exchequer which his vilifiers would not have dared to repeat in the House of Commons. The only tax of the Budget whose yield had not come up to expectations was the whisky tax, and as a teetotaler he was rather glad of it. (Laughter and applause). The rejection of the Budget had entailed many inconveniences, but the people, to whom the Lords professed to appeal had given their answer in no uncertain voice. Old Age Pensions had not only been promised and granted, but paid for. Tory-Protectionists could not under- stand how there would have been, but for the action of the Lords, a surplus of three millions sterling under our Free Trade system. Protectionists had made a desperate effort to capture votes at the last General Election. They promised not that food would cost the people no more than under Free Trade, but that it would actually cost them less. (Laughter). In America it was shown that while the cost of food had owing to the Tariff gone up there had been no corresponding increase in wages. Most important of all with the passing of the Budget the "Land Taxes" came into operation. Much money had been lost to the nation owing to the action of the Lords in rejecting the Budget last year. It was no exaggeration to say that millions had been thus lost. It was a crying shame that whilst in our great cities thousands of men were out of work, starving because unemployed, citizens of an Empire where there were hundreds of thousands of acres of land being practically idle and waste, many of these unemployed should be prevented from earning a Jiving on the land, tilling the soil by the sweat of their brow and breathing into their lungs the pure air of Heaven instead of the fetid air of the slums. It was about time that the land question was settled. (Loud Applause). The BUDGET WAS THE DAWN OF A NEW EKA. The Budget was inextricably mixed up with the Lords question. They could not be separated and considered apart. On the question of the House of Lords the League of Young Liberals went a little further than the Government, but that was not surprising, as the League was the advanced guard of Liberalism. And if Mr Gladstone were with us now he would be in the front rank in this fight against the Peers. Dealing with the composition of the Hereditary Chamber, Mr Hancock said that only a few-a very few-were members of ancient families. The manufacture of beer and whisky was responsible for a few creations, and a few had earned their peerage by selling their country. In the latter connection he referred to Ireland, and said there was no wonder that Irishmen, remembering that transaction which brought about the Union, demanded Home Rule. It HAD COST A REVOLUTION to curb the power of an ancient monarchy, and no rnatter what this 1, matter what this struggle with the Lords cost, Liberals must see it through. The success of the Liberal cause in this matter was vital to the advent of the new democracy. Mr Hancock dealt in a satirical vein with the work and pretensions of the Peers. He dealt with their record in attendance, and their record in legislation. One of the functions of a second chamber was to revise impartially, but during the last forty-two years some thirty-eight Liberal measures had been rejected, but no Tory measure had suffered a similar fate. Indeed the Tory Education Bill of 1902—a Bill keenly resented by an overwhelming majority of the nation, was strengthened in a reactionary sense by the House of Lords. Amongst the measures they bad opposed were Catholic Emancipation and the Franchise. while everything Irish bad been TREATED WITH CONTUMELY AND CONTEMPT. I Some old-fashioned people were opposed to touching the House of Lords because it was such an ancient institution. As a matter of fact, four- fitbs of the existing Peerages had been created since 1750, and half in the ninteenth century. Lord Rosebery had referred to the fact that after Cromwell bad abolished the House of Lords he revived it, but his Lordship did not state that the second chamber revived by Cromwell was very different from the first, and two-thirds of its mem- bers were democrats. Personally, be had no admiration for Lord Rosebery. (Applause). Lord Rosebery had stated that he could not be more hostile than he was to the Budget—he hated, he said, every line and every clause of it-yet he would not vote against it. (Laughter). Lord Rosebery was in a peculiar position—he was not sufficiently Tory for the Tories, and he was certainly not democratic enough for the Liberal Party. The aim of the League, added the speaker, was to create a purer England, a brighter and a happier England. They stood for more equal chances for every man. They might call them Socialists if they liked. They did not mind that. Their motto was A fair day's wage, for a fair day's work, and every man to have a chance to get a home of his own.' They stood for the ABOLITION OF SLUMS AND SLUM LIFE, I and for the government of the people, for the people, and by the people. (Applause.) A few moderate Liberals were scared at Socialism pictorially represented by the Conservatives. Those gentlemen needed a little of the backbone of Liberal democracy. In conclusion Mr Hancock said that in the battle in which Liberals were now engaged, in spite of any temporary defeat, success would be ultimately theirs. (Loud applause.) SUPPORT FOR THE GOVERNMENT. Mr D. Gill Jones, Milford Haven, moved the following resolution :— "That this meeting of the banch of the National League of Young Liberals, recognising the overwhelming importance of securing the triumph of the people's will, desires to express its gratification at the strong attitude adopted by His Majesty's Government in regard to the limitation of the Veto by the House of Lords. It further assures the Government of its practical support in its present policy and calls upon Young Liberals everywhere so to prepare for battle that nothing shall be left undone to secure the supremacy of the elective and representative chamber." In the course of a racy and Piquant speech, Mr Jones congratulated the Haverfordwest branch on holding their first meeting under circumstances which might well act as a tonic to all who had the cause of progress at heart. The haze of uncertainty, depression and anxiety had passed away, obstacles had been removed, barriers surmounted, hindrances overcome. They were now in the sunshine. The Budget had become law; Lloyd George had triumphed. (Applause.) The name of the man who had been called a thief, a robber, Socialist, Welsh- man, as terms of reproach, would pass into the sober judgment of history'as the one who inaugurated a system of democratic Budgets—and Free Trade democratic Budgets at that—which at once trans- ferred the IDEAL OF THE SOCIAL REFORMER into tne arena of practical politics. There had been Budgets in the past which had brought honour and renown upon those who framed them, but there had never been a Budget that had been so transfigured by Christian statesmanship as this Budget. Never before in financial history had bare bald figures been made to throb with the music of humanity's re- demption as Lloyd George s budget. In throwing out the Budget the Lords found their feet but lost their head. (Applause). The people had now not only given their opinion of the Budget but of the Lords too. And they were that night to show their gratification that Mr Asquith had bad the courage to express that opinion of the people in the terms of the Veto Resolutions. The hereditary principle, declared Mr Jones, was not only wrong it was rotten. (Applause). For every Peer who sat in the House of Lords to-day as the result of personal distinction four sat there as the result of having been born in the purple." Men whose ancient but ignoble blood, Has crept through scoundrels ever since the flood." (Laughter and applause). Lord Barnard bad stated that the Lords had made up their minds not to be deterred by shrieks' or appeal to the canaille for what they considered to be their duty to the country. His Lordship was cute enough to put his gentlemanly expressions in French. The Dictionary gave the meaning of Canaille as a rabble, riff-raff, mob, scrum, scoundrel, noisy children, brats." That was the description of the British elector by a lordly legislator who called them all "free and independent electors" when they stumped the country last January. (Laughter and applause). But the Veto Resolutions proved conclusively that the dark days of their tyrranical partisanship were fast coming to a close. (Applause). Mr Scaly seconded the resolution, and said that institutions which had served their jinr;;o-.e had to give way to the exigencies of the present day. The democracy was being educated, and the social conscience was awake. It was said that our con- stitution had grown, but it would be more correct to sav that it was still growing. The intelligent people of the present day were no longer awed by the fiction of noble blood." The House of Lords was respon- sible to no one but perhaps to Providence. It was the servile tool of every Tory administration and the bitter foe of every Liberal administration. What had struck him about the Veto Resolutions and the Bill was their "sweet reasonableness." The Resolutions for ever put an end to the claim of the Lords to force a Dissolution. The talk of Conserva- tives like Mr F. E Smith about rallying to the defence of the Throne was men bunkum. (Applause.) It was Mr Asquith's bounden duty to tender certain advice to the Throne in order to give statutory effect to the Veto Bill. (Applause). Mr A. B. Williams welcomed the declaration that there was no hostility between the League and other Liberal organisations. He proposed a hearty vote of thanks to Mr Hancock and Mr Jones, and this was seconded by Mr Jenkins, Mr Hancock returning thanks.

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