The second-reading debate on the Compulsion Bill was opened in
the House of Commons on Tuesday, when the rejection was moved by a Labour Member, Mr. Anderson. It is scarcely possible to imagine more depressing conditions for his task. Most of the Labour Members were away, and his colleague Mr. Thorne denied that he spoke for the party. Mr. Anderson insisted chiefly on his belief that the Bill meant the introduction of military discipline and pressure into the workshops. Mr. Redmond announced that the Nationalists would not again vote against the Bill. Now that there was known to be a British vote of ten to one in its favour the circumstances of the case, so far as the Irish Members were concerned, were com- pletely changed. In other words, Mr. Redmond had discovered that the "sinking ship" which he had left was after all perfectly seaworthy, and he and his followers hurried to return to it. But we agree with Sir Edward Carson's expression of regret in his powerful speech that Mr. Redmond had not made an even more thorough face-about and promised to vote for the Bill. That would indeed be a staggering lesson for the enemies of Britain I
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