Mr. Balfour closed the debate in a masterly speech, in
which he made no attempt to evade the points under discussion, but met them fairly and openly. As we have pointed' out else- where, he virtually admitted the soundness of the principles laid down by the supporters of the amendment, and declared that the essential difference between them and the Govern- ment was the number of men• to be kept in these islands for
use in a military emergency. He ;t ought three army corps not too ranch. 'We hold that they are too much if the soldiers are to be of the expensive type required to police the Empire in peace. Atthe same time, we believethatwe ought to establish an expeditionary force which shall be ready to leave these islands at a moment's notice, and ought also to provide machinery which would give us seventy or eighty thousand men for emergencies, in addition to the ordinary Reserve, for we by no means hold that such emergencies will not arise.
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