Evening star., 1918-04-11

strict military law with ever increas-
| ing bitterness.
In committee the nationalists would
propose to have county option, and II
the government would concede that.
perhaps they would cry quits. and not
oppose the bill further. He had no hope
that a home rule bill acceptable to Ire
| land could be passed.
Asquith Doubts Its Wisdom.
Ex-Premier Asquith said he much
doubted whether the raising OF the
| military age to fifty would result in
the increased military efficiency ex-
pected. He considered It more probable
that owing to the result dislocatfon in
Industry 1t would cause a diminution
in the sum total of the available ma
tional effort for the conduct OF the
war.
Dealing with ireland, he said that the
fouestion whether compulsory service
when it was proposed for Great Britain
should be extended to Ireland had al
ready been twice considered by the late
government and op both occasions had
be applied was always whether the ad-
vantages would be greater than the
disadvantages.
1t was purely a practical question. He
thought that the argument against
strengthened rather than weakened by
the time that had elapsed since 1t was
last considered.
The government was introducing .
large measure of self-government for
would be received with something like
general assent.
There was both constitutional and
revolutionary movements in Ireland,
showed that the latter was waning. but
il Vas not stamped out. 1t still ex-
listed and had to be reckoned with. He
suggested that the government would
be guilty of terrible shortsightedness
at a time when the Irish convention
had completed its labor and when it
was asking the house to accept far
reaching measure of self-government,
in imposing on Ireland compulsion
which was obnoxious to a very large
number of the Irish people. 1t was all
important that unnecessary domestic
controversy should be avoided and that
a united and unbroken front should be
presented to the people, the allies and
the world.
Andrew Bonar Law, spokesman for
the government. said that what had
in France was unexpected.
That was why this bill was presented.
1T is 3, useless yss, to e0neeal .as fSm p
til the battle began the balance OF
forces was not against the allies on the
western front. Not only the govern
nent, but the British and French mill
tary advisers believed that there was
no danger of anything fatal happening.
Wherever the fault lies 1t does not re-
lieve the necessity of filing the ranks
In the army unless we are prepared to
accept the position that we cannot win.
Crisis in May and June.
I'VE have been able to fill the vast
age in the battle thus far, but, accord
ing to the figures of the casualties
available, the most critical time is
likely to arise at the end Of May and
June. We have succeeded to some ex-
tent in meeting the difficulty by what
the Americans have done. We cannot
put too high our admiration of Presi-
dent Wilson's action in this matter in
brigading the American troops. Moth
ing but absolute necessity could have
justified our making such a demand or
President Wilson's acceding to it."
There were still eight months at
least of this campaign left. Mr.. Bonar
Law continued, and il the struggle
went on, as the government believed 1t
would. the men conscripted now would
become available just at the time they
were needed. The government had al
ready put in men of four months or
less training and must face tho eco
nomic risk, confronted as it was by q
greater risk.