Bisbee daily review., 1918-04-10

extent of penetrating the British line to the extent of half the distance Of the front attacked. They came to that conclusion from a close examina- ton of the offensive of the war.
 There was another advantage. There was, first of all, the advantage which the Germans had from having the initiative There was another ad- vantage they had and this undoubted- ly was the greatest advantage, from having a united command opposite to dual one.
 The Germans undoubtedly relied on this to a very large extent for their success. They owe much fthe sue cess of this attack to this.
 Therefore I have to submit to par liament the totals for increasing, and increasing very materially, the re- serves which will be available tor re- inforcing our arms in the field during this prolonged battle, upon which we are only just entering. I will now give roughly some fthese proposals we intend to make in order to increase the number of men available.
 To Make Age Limit 50
 'I now turn to the new proposal embodied in the bill. which beg leave to introduce today. Our first pro- Dosal is to raise the military age up to 30 and, i ncertain specified cases, we ask for powers to raise it to 55, but that only when a man with special qualifications is needed.
 'The proportio nof men from 42 to 50 years of age who we expect to be available is not very high-some- thing like 2 per cent That is .only ' Ter cent of from 42 to 50 years will be available for the army.
 Now 1 come to the question of ex- emptions from military service. 1t is known to everyone who has had ex- perience in the difficulty of obtaining man power that one of the may ob- stacles to success is the number of exemptions which have been granted, often for reasons which at the time appeared sufficient but which should no longer be effective at the present time of crisis.
 Accordingly, it is provided by the bill that his majesty may by procla- nation. declaring that a national emergency has arisen direct that a certificate of exemption from the mill tary service of the nature. specified in the proclamation shal lcease to have effect, and that while any such procla- nation remains in force no exemptions shall be granted which would faN within the terms of the proclamation. We have to choose between either submitting to defeat or taking the necessary measures to avert it. We will never submit to accepting de- feat.
 Would Limit Exemptions
 Tt is proposed further to make a change in the constitution of the ap- peal tribunals dealing with exemp- tions and to speed up their procedure. ] want again to emphasize the fact that time is the essence of this thing.
 Tn these circumstances it is pro posed to take power bya n order in council both to reconstitute the tribu- nals and regulate the areas in which they shall work and standardize the grounds of exemption and limit the rights of appeal.
 We propose to make an attempt to standardize more accurately than now is done, the ground of exemption to prevent conflicting decisions on these matters in different localities which is one of the great grievances felt in the kountry. Changes also will a made in the procedure, but upon these do not intend to dwell at the mo- ment. There also is the question of the extension Of the act to ministers of religion for nOn-combattant pur- poses.
 q now come to the question of Ire land. When an emergency has arisen which makes it necessary to put men of 50 years of age and those of IS into the army in the fight for liberty and independence Joseph Devlin here and small nationalities. An despecially, as I am reminded, to fight for lierty an independence and small nationalities, a mperfectly cer tain it is not possible to justify any longer the exclusion of Ireland"
 MT. John Dillon:
 You will not get any men from Ireland by compulsion; not man."
 What is the position?" continued Mir Lloyd George. "No home rule proposal ever submitted in this house to deprive the imperial parliament of the power of dealing with all questions in relation to the army and navy These invariably are in every home rule bill I have ever seen and are purely questions for the imperial parliament to that I am no more claiming any national right than was ever claimed in this house. The defense of the realm act also was ex- tended to Ireland.
 'The character of the quarrel in which we are engaged is just as much Irish as English. May 1 say it is more so. It is more Irish, Scottish and Welsh than it is even English. Ire land through its representatives at the beginning of the war assented tol it."
 MT. Devlin here interjected: Be cause it was a war for small nation alities."
 Ireland through it's representatives assented 10 the war, voted for the var. supported the war. Irish repre- sentatives and Ireland, through it re- without a dissenting voice, commuted the empire to 1nis war They are as responsible for itl au any mart of fbo ITDifad Kiuudon