An important debate took place in the Lords on Friday
week, when the House adjourned till February 2nd. Lord Midleton asked for figures as to the progress of recruiting in Ireland, and pointed out the patchiness of the recruiting results generally; some areas seemed to have been overtaxed to make up for the deficiencies in others. Lord Lucas, speaking for the War Office, refused to give any information about the strength or composition of the armed forces in Ireland or elsewhere in the kingdom: "I am absolutely unable to state these figures, and nothing is going to draw them from me." When Mr. Churchill bad spoken of raising the Expeditionary Force to a million men he had merely expressed a pions aspiration. Lord Selborne said that complete secrecy was very likely a sound practice, but the Government, after all, bad not observed secrecy. Both Lord Kitchener and Mr. Churchill had mentioned certain numbers, and the Govern- ment had allowed the numbers of new officers to be published. All that was inconsistent, and the Government should either
be completely silent, or else let the country know exactly what numbers were aimed at and at what rate the recruits were being obtained.
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