Sir Donald Maclean was rewarded to-night for all his uphill work as leader of the Wee Frees before—and since—Mr. Asquith's reappearance. On the Financial Resolution of the Ministry of Health Bill his eloquent plea for the harassed ratepayers received an almost suspiciously prompt response from Mr. Bonar Law, who admitted that it was inconvenient to drive an "omnibus" measure of this kind through an Autumn Session, and intimated that thirteen of its clauses would be jettisoned. An appeal from Lady Astor, that the Government should not "economise in health," fell upon deaf ears. Dr. Addison not only enumerated the thirteen doomed clauses, but threw in a fourteenth for luck.
Tuesday, November 16th.—I don't suppose Lord Crewe and the other noble Lords who enlarged upon the theme "Persicos odi" expected to embarrass the Foreign Secretary by their cross-questioning. Persia is to Lord Curzon what "de brier-patch" was to Brer Rabbit. He has been cultivating it all his life, and knows every twist and turn of its complicated history, ancient and modern. The gist of his illuminating lecture to the Peers was that our one aim had been to maintain Persian independence with due regard to British interests, and that it now rested with the Persians themselves to decide their own destiny.
BRER [a]RABBIT] IN HIS ELEMENT.
Lord Curzon.
Hopes of a relaxation of the passport restrictions were a little dashed by Mr. Harmsworth's announcement that the fees received for British visas amounted to some fifty per cent. more than the cost of the staff employed. The Government will naturally be loth to scrap a Department which actually earns its keep.
The War Minister was again badgered about the hundred Rolls-Royces that he had ordered for Mesopotamia. Now that we were contemplating withdrawal was it necessary to have them? To this Mr. Churchill replied that the new Arab State would still require our assistance. A mental picture of the sheikhs taking joy-rides in automobiles de luxe presented itself to Mr. Hogge, who gave notice that he should "reduce" the Army Estimates by the price of the chassis. A little later Mr. Churchill came down heavily on an innocent Coalitionist who had proffered suggestions as to the better safeguarding of the troops in Ireland. "Odd as it may seem," he told him, "this aspect of the question has engaged the attention of the military authorities."
In the course of debate on the Agricultural Bill, Mr. Acland hinted that Sir F. Banbury, one of its severest critics, was out of touch with rural affairs. Whereupon Mr. Pretyman came to the rescue with the surprising revelation that the junior Member for the City of London, in addition to his vocations as banker, stockbroker and railway director, had on one occasion carried out the functions of "shepherd to a lambing flock." The right hon. Baronet, who is known to his intimates as "Peckham," will have Mr. Pretyman to thank if his sobriquet in future is "Little Bo-Peep."
Wednesday, November 17th.—The Lords, having welcomed the Bishop of Durham—a notable addition to the oratorical strength of the Episcopal Bench—proceeded to show that even the lay peers had not much to learn in the matter of polite invective. Lord Gainford invited them to declare that the Government should forthwith reduce its swollen Departmental staffs and incidentally relieve our open spaces from the eyesores that now disfigure them. Perhaps he laid overmuch stress upon the latter part of his motion, for the Ministerial spokesman rode off on this line—Lord Crawford confessing that his artistic sensibility was outraged by these "horrible hutments"—and said very little about cutting down the staffs. This way of treating the matter dissatisfied the malcontents, who voted down the Ministry.
