25 MARCH 1911, Page 3

Mr. Asquith received a deputation on Wednesday from Scottish Liberal

Members in favour of " Scottish control over purely Scottish affairs." The deputation, according to the report of the Times parliamentary correspondent, urged that under present conditions at Westminster it was hopeless for the claims of Scotland to receive adequate attention. A

complete scheme of devolution was essential to the efficiency of the Imperial Parliament. Mr. Asquith is understood to have expressed his sympathy with the demands of the Scottish members, and to have stated that he had always presented the case for Irish Home Rule as part of a fuller scheme. He was fully alive to the force of the arguments addressed to him, and would convey them to his colleagues, who would, he doubted not, receive them sympathetically. The deputation gathered from this statement, though no definite promise seems to have been made, that the Irish Home Rule Bill would be followed up by Bills establishing local Parliaments in Scotland, England, and Wales.