LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
VTR REFERENDUM.
[TO TEE EDITOR OF THE "SproraTou."1 SIR,—You did me the honour on last Christmas Day of publishing a letter of mine in your columns in which I advocated the addition of a Referendum clause to any "Veto Bilk" At the time when I wrote it I was in Germany, where I was constantly struck by the unfeigned surprise of the Germans at the way in which Englishmen could differ seriously without breaking off relations altogether. I used to wonder what exceptional conditions produced this so far happy result, and I can attribute it to nothing so much as to our Press, that portion of it at any rate which is not run on purely party lines, and which by previous discussion reveals the gradual formation of opinion and minimises the possi- bility of a charge that party leaders are taken by surprise. In 1885 the risk was the other way : Mr. Gladstone surprised his party ; in 1910 the party may surprise the leaders. All the more need for plain speaking during the next few weeks. Happily the issue, tremendous as it is, is much more simple than Home-rule or not, which may mean so many things.
So I wish to thank you heartily for pushing the Referendum, and at the same time to ask you why you add in your footnote to Lord Monteagle's statesmanlike letter in the last issue : No doubt the House of Commons would reject it." Surely that need not be so if men who feel keenly in favour of it on whichever side make their voices heard. It is obvious that M.P.'s only just returned to Parliament dislike the prospect of a summer General Election, and would prefer a Referendum of which " the cost of the poll would naturally be borne by the Treasury." The question is a Constitutional one, and, as Lord Monteagle says, " Constitutional questions are best suited to such treatment." The solution is eminently demo- cratic, for the people are consulted, not the constituencies. And lastly, M.P.'s in voting for it will on each side be postponing something dear to their hearts, Liberals like myself (for, do not be shocked, Sir, I am still a Home-ruler) Home-rule, Tariff Reformers Tariff Reform. Perhaps, however, such delays will be blessings in disguise, as in the one case Mr. Redmond will have time to make it up with Mr. O'Brien, in the other Mr. Balfour and Mr. Chamberlain to produce their scheme. That the second Resolution just passed will estrange many earnest Liberals, unless a Referendum clause is tacked on to it, is clear. They may or may not have to take part in the government of their country hereafter with the inferior machinery of what will practically be a single Chamber. Their aims and objects may remain the same, but God forbid that they deliberately shut their ears to the voice of history in their own country, and their eyes to the sight of what they can see in Greece and elsewhere.—I am, Sir, &c., The Paddocks, Swalham. H. LEE-WARNER.
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