"His conscience now quite clear."
Sir J. T. Agg-Gardner.
A long-standing Parliamentary tradition enjoins that the reply to any Question addressed to the Chairman of the Kitchen Committee should be greeted with laughter. By virtue of his office he holds, as it were, the "pass-the-mustard" prerogative. Members laughed accordingly when he replied to a question relating to the number of ex-Service men employed by his Committee; but they laughed much more loudly when the hon. Member who put the original Question proceeded to inquire "if his conscience is now quite clear," and Sir J. T. Agg-Gardner, looking as respectable as if he were Mrs. Grundy's second husband, declared, hand on heart, that it was.
THE DEFENDER OF KUT—WITH ESCORT.
Sir Charles Townshend.
The House gave a rather less stentorian welcome than might have been expected to Sir Charles Townshend, who was escorted up to the Table by Mr. Bottomley and Colonel Croft. Perhaps it was afraid that cheers intended for the defender of Kut might be appropriated by the Editor of John Bull.
Encouraged, I suppose, by the emptiness of the Ladies' Gallery, it then proceeded with great freedom to discuss a proposal for the employment of women and young persons "in shifts."
THE FAT BOY OF DULWICH.