In the House of Commons on Thursday week Mr. Balfour,
in replying to complaints about the insufficiency of merchant shipping, said that the Admiralty and its Transport Department could not. interfere with the military authorities, in whose discretion it lay: to hold up shipping. An angel from Heaven could not remedy this state of affairs. It was essential that the soldiers and sailors should have all the tonnage they asked for. It might be possible to build more merchant vessels during the war, but very unfortunately a scheme for doing this which was proposed in the Munitions Bill had been postponed together with the whole Bill. Mr. Asquith, by the way, had said the day before that no interest would be, imperilled by the postponement -of the Bill. It may be that after his visit to. the North Mr., Lloyd George may be able to deal with the Munitions Bill with more freedom. Lord Robert Cecil replied to various criticisms of the Foreign Office, and said that if the suggestion was made that some one in the Foreign Office was in the pay of the Germans, it was a grotesque and disgraceful charge. " It shows that there are people who cannot stand the stress of war—mere hysterical neurotics." The House adjourned till January 4th.
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