On Wednesday in the House of Commons the Bill for
forming a National Register was again under discussion. Replying to an amendment moved by Mr. Whitehouse for excluding women, Mr. Loug made a striking announcement. Originally the Bill was confined to men, but demands from women to be included came from all parts of the country, and the Government yielded to this exhibition of public spirit. In regard to the proposal to make the age- limit fifty-five instead of sixty-five in the case of men, and irx the case of women forty-five, Mr. Long mentioned that he- had received angry letters of protest from men over sixty- five, and that he would like it to be known that it was open to such persons voluntarily to add their names to the Register. As the object of the Bill is not military service, it seems to us. that the Government were quite right to include the largest, number of people. There are a great many boys of fifteen who can do excellent work, and also, again, a great many men of sixty-five who are highly skilled and quite efficient in factory work. Where old age tells chiefly is in the capacity for rapid movement. Men over fifty can march, but they cannot charge.
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