London, Feb. 21.
'A private member's bill, which was subjected to a storm of Labour: and Liberal denunciation' in advance, passed its first reading the House of Commons to-day.
The object of the bill is the separating of the political and industrial funds of trade unions, thia making Megal political levies without the specific agreement of the, members, instead of the present /system, which merely gives members the right to contract out.
The bill rigidly forbids the application of the ordinary funds to political purposes and lays down that political contributions are col-leetable quarterly, half-yestly The measure is assured of strong Conservative backing, but its fate suds on the Government granting facilities for its passage—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.