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As party-funds are rather under a cloud just now the Government
thought they might justify their existence by drawing on them for
the campaign against enemy propaganda. But their custodians thought
otherwise. The Tory Whip was prepared to make a small contribution;
the Liberal would give nothing, on the ground that the total required
was extravagantly large. So the country will have to foot the bill.
_Wednesday, November 14th_.--The knowledge that Mr. ASQUITH was to
"interpellate" the PRIME MINISTER regarding his recent speech in
Paris, and the Allied War Council therein described, brought a
crowd of Members to the House, and filled the Peers' Gallery with
ex-Ministers scenting a first-class crisis.
The protagonists on entering the arena were loudly cheered by their
respective adherents, but the expected duel did not come off. Mr.
ASQUITH'S questions were searching enough, but not provocative. Mr.
LLOYD GEORGE'S reply was comprehensive and conciliatory, and ended
with the promise of a day for discussion. Instead of a fight there was
only an armistice, usually a preliminary to a definite peace.
A little disappointed, perhaps, the Peers betook themselves to their
own Chamber, there to hear Lord PARMOOR discourse upon the woes
of conscientious objectors. Many of them, he thought, had been
vindictively punished for their peculiar opinions. Nobody, in a
somewhat cloudy discussion, made it quite clear whether the Tribunals
or the Army authorities or the Home Office were most at fault; and
Lord CURZON'S suggestion that persons who refused not merely to fight
but to render any kind of service to their country in its time of need
were not wholly free from blame had almost the air of novelty.
The Air-Force Bill passed through Committee in one sitting. The credit
for this achievement may be divided equally between Major BAIRD, who
proved himself once more a skilful pilot, and Mr. BILLING, who spoke
so often that other intending critics got little chance. Counting
speeches and interruptions, I find from the official reports that he
addressed the House exactly one hundred times; and it is therefore
worth noticing that his last words were, "This is what you call
muzzling the House of Commons."
_Thursday, November 15th_.--Lord WIMBORNE did his best to-night to
defend the inaction of the Irish Executive in the face of the Sinn
Fein menace. But he would have been wiser not to have adduced the
argument that Ireland was a _terra incognita_. If there is one subject
that the Peers think they know all about it is the sister-island. Lord
CURZON thought it would be a mistake, by enforcing "a superficial
quiet," to check the wholesome influences brought into being by the
Convention. He did not go so far as to say that Mr. DE VALERA was one
of them.
At last the Government have decided to take short order with the
pernicious literature of the Pacifists. In future all such documents
are to be submitted to the Press Bureau before publication. A howl of
derisive laughter greeted the HOME SECRETARY'S announcement, but when
Mr. SNOWDEN essayed to move the adjournment, although he and his
friends were joined by some of the Scotch and Irish malcontents, the
total muster was only thirty-three, and the motion accordingly came to
earth with a thud.
By a large majority the House refused to reinstate the Livery
franchise in the City of London. In any case this ancient privilege
could not long have survived the curtailment of the Lord Mayor's
Feast.
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[Illustration: _The Colonel_. "I'D TAKE ALL THOSE MUTINOUS HOUNDS AND
PUT 'EM AGAINST THE WALL."
_Aunt Jane_. "BUT, MY DEAR, THE AWFUL THING IS THAT IT HAS SPREAD TO
OUR OWN ARMY. I HEARD TWO SOLDIERS IN THE TRAIN TO-DAY TALKING ABOUT
THEIR SERGEANT-MAJOR IN A DREADFUL WAY."]
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