On Friday week the House considered the Bill of which
Mr. Asquith's summary was given in the public report of the secret Session. The Bill met with the .usual fate of compromises made to please everybody. It was evident that it pleased nobody. After Mr. Long's, introductory speech, Sir Edward Carson denounced the injustice of keeping the time-expired men When there was no compulsion for those who had not yet served. The anti- corapulsioniats also opposed the proposals, but with nothing like the vigour of the compulsionists. The Labour Members, especially Mr. Walsh, denounced them as partial, and declared the willingness of wage-earners to come in if compulsion were impartial. Mr. Asquith arrived, and with a readiness that denoted no surprise or hesitation, said that the motion to introduce the Bill should be ,withdrawn, and a fresh- statement on the whole question be made on the following. Tuesday. Though the whole affair had the out- ward appearance of a fiasco, the result was a general feeling that the air was clearer and the way for general assent to compulsion more opan.,at last.
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