On Thursday Mr. Robson moved the Opposition "War Commission" amendment
in an able but somewhat inflam- matory speech. The chief points of his indictment were that the Prime Minister and his colleagues had ignored the advice the warning of responsible soldiers that we were locally un- prepared for war. Mr. Wyndham in his reply laid stress on the defective organisation of the War Office and the diplomatic difficulties of the situation. The Government, he contended, had done the best they could with the defec- tive machinery at their disposal, and as regards general preparations for war, he claimed that the record of the present Government compared favourably with that of the Opposition. Mr. Chamberlain replied to the attacks on himself in a powerful debating speech. The war was inevitable, but to the last moment the Government had hoped for, and almost believed in, a pacific solution, and this hampered their action. In short, it was because the Cabinet hoped for peace that they had delayed war preparations,—a new and, coming from Mr. Chamberlain, not altogether convincing inversion of the maxim, Si viz _pace= para bethink Earlier in the sitting Sir Michael Hicks Beach appealed to Mr. Morley to withdraw his fiscal amendment if opportunities were afforded for bringing forward a substantive Motion when the Premier had recovered from his illness. To this Mr. Morley declined to assent, pointing out that the debate was eagerly expected on all sides, and that it was reasonable to suppose that other Ministers besides the Premier were competent to expound and interpret the Government policy.
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