On Tuesday the House reassembled. The Prime Minister began with
a public summary of some of the information given in the secret Session. He let us know the fact, of which we may well be proud, that " the total military and naval effort of the Empire from the beginning of the war up to this moment exceeds five million men." He recapitulated the proposals of the compromise and the needs of the country, reducing the question " to one of method," and he announced that the method to be applied would be one of " general and immediate compulsion," in order to get rid of piecemeal treatment and all sense of temporary injustice. He went on to make a very spirited challenge to all critics of the Government, defending the Cabinet, asking how the Ministry could be replaced, and demanding national unity and the confidence of the people. " If we have not that confidence, let the House say so." Though there was some subsequent criticism, Sir John Simon alone denied the need for compulsion, and the Prime Minister bad the satisfaction of feeling that the House was with him. All the talk of turning out the Ministry and putting in " the great unknown " has come to nothing.
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