As we have said again and again in these pages,
it is as odious as it is unjust to talk about Lord Derby having failed to keep his word or having " s'.uffied" in his explanations. He never concealed, but rather emphasized, the fact that a good many unmarried men would have to bo exempted in order to perform necessary work in mining, munitions, and agriculture. The essential part of the plerlge was the promise to apply compulsion if an insufficient number of unmarried men proved willing to offer themselves voluntarily. Compulsion was only to be applied if the men who failed to volunteer were not a negligible quantity. To describe those who, like ourselves, call attention to these plain facts as indulging is " shuffling " is to use language so mendacious as to pass the bounds which even the most panic-stricken publicists might be expected to set to their perfervid imaginations.
