Before his departure Mr. LLOYD GEORGE, ever thoughtful for the welfare
of others, arranged with the Military authorities to give a change of
scene to six members of the Clyde Workers' Committee, who have been
recently over-straining their vocal chords. This was the impression I
got from Dr. ADDISON, who, like his great namesake, is a master of the
bland style; but Sir EDWARD CARSON thrust aside official euphemism and
bluntly inquired whether these men were not in fact assisting the KING'S
enemies, and ought not to be indicted for high treason.
The suppression of a number of _Sinn Fein_ papers in Ireland stimulated
Mr. GINNELL to the concoction of a Question about as long as a leading
article. To ensure a reply he addressed it simultaneously to the UNDER
SECRETARY FOR WAR and the CHIEF SECRETARY FOR IRELAND. In spite of this
precaution he was disappointed, for, owing to the storm, Mr. BIRRELL had
not received the necessary information from Ireland, while Mr. TENNANT,
no doubt for the same reason, had not even received the Question. Mr.
GINNELL is now convinced that the official conspiracy against him has
been joined by the Clerk of the Weather.
I shall hardly be surprised if the next time I walk down Whitehall I
find sandwichmen out with their boards inscribed--
Westminster Aerodrome.
Flying every Tuesday.
Billing Breaks all Records.
The new Member for East Herts has displayed unprecedented dexterity in
catching the SPEAKER'S eye. In three weeks he has already spoken more
columns of _Hansard_ than many Members fill during a long Parliamentary
career. His speech to-day consisted almost entirely of a catalogue of
fatal accidents to aviators, due, he declared, to the faulty engines and
machines supplied to them by the Government--"though within twenty miles
of here we have a far better machine than the _Fokker_."
Previous to this we had listened to a bright and diverting dialogue
between Mr. DUDLEY WARD, representing the Anti-Aircraft Service, and Mr.
JOYNSON-HICKS, briefed by the Municipal authorities, on the question of
what happened at Ramsgate during the last raid. As they differed _in
toto_ on every detail the House was not much the wiser for the
discussion, but it was consoled by Mr. JOYNSON-HICKS' remark that "if
the MAYOR and TOWN CLERK have lied to me no one will be more pleased
than myself."
Members were much more impressed by the obvious sincerity and occasional
eloquence of the appeal on behalf of the East Coast towns made by Sir A.
GELDER. His indignation at the trick played on one place by the Military
authorities, who tried to allay public anxiety by mounting a dummy gun,
was shared by the House.
Mr. TENNANT did not attempt to deny or palliate this imposture, but he
made a fairly adequate reply to other counts of the indictment, and
promised a judicial inquiry into the casualties enumerated by Mr.
BILLING. The revelation that he himself has a son in the Flying Corps
was perhaps the most effective point in a speech which did not wholly
remove the impression that the Government has its head in the air rather
than its heart.
_Wednesday, March 29th._--There are more ways than one of getting into
the House of Commons. Mr. PERCY HARRIS, the new Member for the Market
Harborough division, who took his seat to-day, arrived by the
old-fashioned route of a contested election. He was just about to shake
hands with the SPEAKER when a khaki-clad stranger took a short cut from
the Gallery and reached the floor _per saltum_. Not only so, but before
he could be arrested this Messenger from Mars succeeded in delivering
his maiden speech, to the effect that British soldiers' heads should be
protected against shrapnel-fire. The SERJEANT-AT-ARMS, who had had a
narrow escape, goes further, holding the view that his own head should
be protected from acrobatic British soldiers.
To-day Mr. LONG had the difficult task of convincing the House that the
married men had no grievance, and that the Government were doing their
best to remove it. Only a man who has fought with bulls in Ireland could
hope to tackle such a paradox. Mr. LONG, having enjoyed that experience,
was fairly successful.
Sir EDWARD CARSON, who had been expected by some people to initiate a
raging "Down-the-Government" agitation, was comparatively mild, and,
admitting that his late colleagues had done something, chiefly blamed
them for not having done it earlier. Still he made it plain that in his
view compulsion all round was inevitable if Prussianism was to be
crushed. Mr. ELLIS GRIFFITH agreed with him. The Government ought not to
bargain with the public; it ought to give them a clear and definite
command. Such sentiments, proceeding from one who still claimed to
belong to the Liberal Party, shocked Sir WILLIAM BYLES. Maintaining that
those who had voted against the Military Service Bill were the truest
friends of the PRIME MINISTER, he promised again to give him his
invaluable support "if he would only lead us to our accustomed pasture."
There is no justification, however, for the theory that the worthy
knight is a candidate for the Order of the Thistle.
_Thursday, March 30th._--In the Lords to-day Viscount TEMPLETOWN moved
that London should be declared a prohibited area, with a view to
removing the eight or nine thousand Germans still carrying on business
there. His argument was a little difficult to follow, for it included a
complaint that in Eastbourne, which is a prohibited area, a number of
aliens are residing in comfort and affluence. The Marquis of LANSDOWNE,
usually so logical, on this occasion answered inconsequence by
inconsequence. In one breath he asserted that to declare the whole of
the Metropolis a prohibited area would throw too much work on the
police; and in the next that it would have the effect of driving away
large numbers of aliens to places not so well policed as London is.
Lord BERESFORD caught the infection. In the course of a long question
designed to clear General TOWNSHEND of the responsibility for the
advance upon Bagdad, he remarked with startling irrelevance that if his
(Lord BERESFORD's) advice had been taken by the PRIME MINISTER the
_Lusitania_ would still be afloat and we should have lost no battleships
in the Dardanelles. He did not appear to attach undue importance to this
claim, and Lord ISLINGTON, who replied for the Government, did not think
it necessary to make any reference to it, but contented himself with
stating that the Bagdad advance was authorised on the advice of General
NIXON and the Indian Government, and professing official ignorance of
any representations on the part of General TOWNSHEND.
In the Commons the trouble on the Clyde was the _pièce de résistance_.
At Question time Mr. LLOYD GEORGE, fresh from the Paris Conference, had
to deal with a number of inquiries put by the little group of Scottish
malcontents whose notion of patriotism is to embarrass the Government on
each and every occasion. Mr. HOGGE wanted to know when the MINISTER OF
MUNITIONS was going to give the other side of the case--"the German
side," as an interrupter pertinently put it; and Mr. PRINGLE intimated
that a settlement could have been reached but for the unreasonableness
of the Government.
This gave Dr. ADDISON, usually the mildest-mannered man that ever lanced
a gumboil, an opportunity of administering to big accuser a much-needed
lesson in deportment. The hon. Member had first forced himself, without
invitation, into a private conversation in the Minister's room, and had
then given a totally misleading account of what took place. He had made
himself the spokesman of a body which had displayed "a treacherous
disregard of the highest national interests."
Mr. PRINGLE was as much surprised as if he had been bitten by a rabbit,
and wound up an unconvincing defence of himself with the remark that he
would rather keep silence than say anything to exacerbate feeling. It is
a pity that his friend Mr. HOGGE did not imitate this wise if rather
tardy reticence. He gave Mr. LLOYD GEORGE the lie when he was describing
how the disputes had interfered with the supply of guns urgently needed
by the Army, and provoked the retort that, instead of encouraging the
strikers by unfounded suggestions, he would be better employed if "with
what credit is left to him" he went down to the Clyde and tried to get
them to work.
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[Illustration: _She._ "Good gracious! The Brown-Smiths!! I thought they
were so poor."
_He._ "Yes. But, you see, he's been supplying the Government with shells
for quite a fortnight!"]
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