Not that we want to underrate the importance of private
members' time. Indeed, we want to see private members much more generously treated, for they always stand in the way of an unwholesome stereotyping of business. But these days are abnormal, and everything must give way to financial questions which were never so vital as now. Mr. Clynes made a poor case worse by admitting that the Government proposed to proceed with Vote A and the Vote on Account, for on this vote there was a Socialist amendment demanding the reduction of the Army by 150,000 men—much too vital a matter to be scamped in a debate after the usual " closing time." The Unionists were solidly opposed to the Government proposal, but the Liberals were divided. In the Division the majority against the Government was 27. Mr. Stephen Walsh, the Secretary for War, then proceeded, as though nothing had happened, to make his statement on the Army Estimates.
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