The second reading debate on the' Military Service Bill took
place in the House of Lords on Tuesday. Most of the criticism was directed to showing that the Bill did not go far enough. Lard Weardale made the only speech in opposition to the prin- ciple of compulsion, and argued that the number of unattested single men could not be more than a hundred thousand. Lord Midleton described the Bill as another example of the Govern- ment's habit of following the line of least resistance. If the Government had had more courage, they would have been even more successful. Ireland ought to have been included. Lord Derby, in answer to Lord Weardale, stoutly declared that his figure of 650,000 unattested single men was a minimum. What alarmed him was not the probability of the number of single men available being whittled away by the tribunals, but the indulgence of the Government in reducing the number by exempting whole classes.
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