A paragraph in the Daily News of Friday week remarks
that now that Irish Conscription has been " ignominiously dropped " the Prime Minister's, excuse for having asked elderly men in Great Britain to serve in the Army has disappeared. The paragraph ends with these words : " The men in this country who have been palpably tricked should demand a better explanation from the Premier than Lord Curzon gave." We agree that the argument by which the Prime Minister attempted to make Conscription for elderly men palatable has-been brought to futility by the Govern- ment's own -policy. But it is really infamous to use this unfortunate fact as the basis of a suggestion to the men of new military age in this country that they should try to wriggle out of their obliga- tions. The Daily News should have been ashamed to publish so reckless and dangerous an invitation. We fanny, however, that it will be resented-by no one more than by those elderly men who are being called up for service. It cannot pretended that most of them like going, but as patriotic men they would not dream of humiliating themselves by using a mere • debating point for the purpose of trying to-refuse service to their country in a great crisis.
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