The Development Bill was under discussion in the Commons on
Monday, but Mr. Lloyd George declined to give any preliminary explanations, on the ground that he had already dealt with the Bill in his Budget statement and later in the special Memorandum. Lord Robert Cecil, who moved the rejection of the Bill in a powerful speech, denounced the measure as part of a gigantic scheme to bribe the electorate. Local authorities would compete for the largest share of the development grant, and pressure would be brought to bear on Members of Parliament. Lord Robert Cecil having alluded to Mr. J. E. Redmond's recent statement at Arklow that he had reason to know that money would be provided out of the Development Fund for the drainage of Irish rivers and for the purchase and nationalisation of Irish railways, Mr. Lloyd George emphatically declared that no such promise had been made to anybody. Later on Mr. T. M. Healy, who is once more threatened with expulsion from the Parliamentary Party, expressed the opinion that when the Chancellor of the Exchequer denied that any assurance had been given he must have misconceived the situation.
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