On Wednesday, at the Whips' Office in Downing Street, Mr.
Asquith received a large deputation of Liberal Members to urge upon him the existence of uneasiness in the Liberal Party at the anticipated increase in the new Naval Estimates. An official statement declares that the deputation was intro- duced by Mr. Molteno, and that the Prime Minister, in his reply, stated that be sympathized fully with the anxiety of the Liberal Members at the growth of expenditure and that the matter was receiving earnest and constant attention from the Government. The official statement further gives the names of fifty-six Members who sympathized with the objects of the deputation but could not be present. Besides Mr. Molteno, the speakers were Mr. Gordon Harvey, Mr.. Annan Bryce, Mr. A. Ponsonby, and Mr. D. M. Mason. Among the forty Members who were present, we note the names of Mr. A. C. Morton, Captain Pirie, Sir W. Byles, Sir W. P. Beale, Mr. Percy Alden, Baron de Forest, the Hon. F. McLaren, and Mr. Rowntree—to speak frankly, not. a very alarming Parliamentary forlorn hope. The Times adds that the impression left upon the deputation was that there might be increased expenditure in completing ships eh eady sanctioned, but that the Estimates were not yet settled. The Members also gathered that the naval policy was and would be the policy of the whole Cabinet, for which they and the Prime Minister himself were responsible—a statement of the custom of the Constitution which we should have thought it was hardly worth while for forty gentlemen to trudge to Downing Street on a December day "to gather."
Previous page
