On Wednesday and Thursday nights the discussion of the Army
Estimates was resumed, and again Mr. Arnold-Forster met his critics with "explanations" as to the intentions of the Government which left matters very much as they were. The only certainty is that the Militia and Volunteers are to live in the atmosphere of the condemned cell for another nine months at least, and that at the end of that time Mr. Arnold-Forstcr hopes to lead them to the scaffold. To the plea that uncertainty was killing the Militia and Volunteers
neither Mr. Balfour on Wednesday nor the Secretary for War on Thursday gave an' satisfactory answer. In the end the vote was carried by a majority of 42 (209 to 167). On Mr, Arnold-Forster's policy generally the Times of Friday makes the following comment :—" Mr. Arnold-Forster is a kind of Hamlet with some infirmity of purpose which makes his thoughts 'lose the name of action.' We are driven to suspect that, like most of his critics when they attempt t6 be constructive, he counts his material twice over, and comes to a deadlock whenever the scheme requires it to be in two places at once." Is this unhappy Government to lose even the support of the Times ?
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