|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 11
[Illustration: _Mr. BONAR LAW_ (_to Mr. MCKENNA_). "AS ONE CHANCELLOR
OF THE EXCHEQUER TO ANOTHER, WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU'RE SEVENTY
MILLION POUNDS OUT?"]
_Tuesday, May 8th_.--The official reticence regarding the names
and exploits of our airmen was the subject of much complaint. Mr.
MACPHERSON declared that it was quite in accordance with the wishes of
the R.F.C. themselves. But Sir H. DALZIEL was still dissatisfied. He
knew of a young lieutenant who had brought down forty enemy machines
and been personally congratulated by the Commander-in-Chief, and yet
his name was not published. It is obvious that praise even from
Sir DOUGLAS HAIG is not the same thing as a paragraph in _Reynolds'
Newspaper_.
[Illustration: BEAU BRUMMEL BILLING GIVES THE "NO-STARCH" MOVEMENT A
GOOD SEND-OFF.]
A request for an increased boot-allowance to the Metropolitan Police
met with a dubious reception from Mr. BRACE, who explained that
it would involve an expenditure of many thousands of pounds. It is
rumoured that the Home Office is considering the recruitment of a
Bantam Force, with a view to reducing the acreage of leather required.
_Wednesday, May 9th_.--If the CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER should
be accused of having taken advantage of his knowledge of the
Budget-proposals to lay in a secret hoard of tobacco he will have no
one to blame but himself. He solemnly assured the House that nothing
has been brought to his notice to show that the trade is making undue
profits. It is clear, therefore, that he has not had occasion to go
into a tobacconist's and ask for his favourite mixture, only to find
that his three-half-penny tax has sent the price up by twopence.
By prohibiting the manufacture of starch the Government has done
something to please Mr. PEMBERTON-BILLING. The hon. Member, who has
always affected the "soft shirts that Sister Susie sews," is flattered
to think that he has set a fashion which must now become universal.
When Captain BATHURST, falling into his humour, assured him that even
BEAU BRUMMEL would accept the position with patriotic resignation,
Mr. BILLING felt that he had found his true vocation as an arbiter of
taste.
In moving a Vote of Credit for the unexampled sum of five hundred
millions, Mr. BONAR LAW apologised for a slight error in his Budget
statement. He had then estimated the expenditure of the country at
five and a half millions a day. Owing to fortuitous circumstances, the
amount for the first thirty-five days of the financial year had turned
out to be seven and a half millions a day. Mr. MCKENNA, conscious
of some similar lapses in calculation during his own time at the
Exchequer, handsomely condoned the mistake. Still one felt that
it strengthened the stentorian plea for economy made by Mr. J.A.R.
MARRIOTT in a maiden speech that would perhaps have been better if
it had not been quite so good. The House is accustomed to a little
hesitation in its novices and does not like to be lectured even by an
Oxford don.
[Illustration: THE SECRET SESSION.
_WINSTON._ "NO REPORT OF SPEECHES. IT HARDLY SEEMS WORTH WHILE."]
The debate produced a number of speeches more suitable for the Secret
Session that was to follow. Our enemies will surely be heartened when
they read the criticisms passed by Mr. GEORGE LAMBERT, an ex-Minister
of the Crown, upon our Naval policy, and by Mr. DILLON on the Salonika
Expedition; and they will not understand that the one is dominated
by the belief that no Board of Admiralty that does not include Lord
FISHER can possibly be efficient; and that the other is congenitally
unable to believe anything good of British administration in Ireland
or elsewhere.
For once Mr. BONAR LAW took the gloves off to Mr. DILLON, and told him
plainly that more attention would be paid to his criticism if he was
himself doing something to help in the prosecution of the War.
_Thursday, May 10th_.--I gather from Mr. SPEAKER'S report of the
Secret Session that nothing sensational was revealed. The PRIME
MINISTER'S "encouraging account of the methods adopted to meet the
submarine attack" was not much more explicit, I infer, than the speech
which Lord CURZON was making simultaneously, _urbi et orbi_, in the
House of Lords, or Mr. ASQUITH would not have observed--again I quote
the official report--that "hardly anything had been said which could
not have been said openly."
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|