26 MARCH 1921, Page 3

Lord Selborne, in the House of Lords on Monday, urged

the Government to introduce a measure of Second Chamber Reform this session. He said that if by a turn of fortune's wheel the Labour Party came into power, it could do all that had been done in Russia to destroy the constitution, the liberty and the property of the people by means of the Parliament Act in a little more than two years, although the majority of the electors might not desire anything of the kind. Lord Bryce supported Lord Selborne, declaring that even an imper- fect Second Chamber would be better than none, especially now that representative legislatures caused so much dissatis- faction. Lord Haldane defended the Parliament Aot and said that he did not fear a Labour Ministry. Lord Curzon, in reply, pleaded that the members of the Cabinet Committee had been far too busy to discuss the large and difficult question of a Second Chamber, and that Parliament could not sit in the autumn to consider a Bill on this subject. He hoped that the Government might introduce a Bill early next session. Thus the matter is once more deferred.