We hope that all our readers will always remember that we are compelled, both by the shortage and dearness of paper, to limit, each month, the size of the MAGAZINE. This makes our problem more than ever the familiar one of the quart and pint pot, but we still venture to hope that we succeed in giving what is essential and of real importance. ANNOUNCEMENTS. THE INDEX to Volume XXIV., completed by the January number of THE LIBERAL MAGAZINE, is now ready. A copy will be sent post free to any subscriber on application to the Liberal Publication Department, 42, Parliament Street, S.W. 1. THE bound volume of THE LIBERAL MAGAZINE for 1916 (Volume XXIV.) is now ready, and may be obtained for 5s. 6d. post free from the Liberal Publication Department, 42, Parliament Street, S.W. 1. THE DIARY OF THE MONTH. (1) Mr. H. Samuel on Parliamentary Control. "The great danger always before a democracy is that it will not trust its executive sufficiently. The weakness of the Executive has in many cases been the cause of the downfall and of the inefficiency of democratic systems. When the American Constitution came to be framed, this danger was so prominently before the founders of that Constitution, and especially before the mind of Alexander Hamilton, that great statesman to whom the present framework of the American Constitution is largely due, that they went to the opposite extreme and separated entirely the executive organs of the Constitution from the legislative organs. The experience of the time that has since elapsed has led most political students to the conclusion that they went too far, and that it is a weakness of the American Constitution to have separated so completely the Executive from the Legislature. That view, I believe, has been expressed by the very distinguished political figure who now presides over the destinies of the United States, President Wilson himself, in his political writings before he became President. If, on the other hand, you limit too much the power of your individual Minister, and if you require him to present all his proposals to Committees of Parliament, you may find that what you really intend to be a stimulus to executive action may become a clog.' (2) Mr. Churchill on Parliamentary Control. "Between the French Chamber's scrupulous, detailed, meticulous control, not only of legislation but of administration and of executive action, and the almost total abdication and neglect which has grown up in the House of Commons in regard to war matters, there is, it seems to me, a wide interval in which there is room for many forms of wise and useful solutions, and of practical and immediate solutions." (3) Mr. Bonar Law on the First Coalition Government and Compulsion. "The first question which he (Mr. Churchill) raised was that in relation to the first Coalition Government, which he described as one of the most disastrous events of the war. I think it is rather difficult to be sure of that. I think that every member of the House in his own mind should try to make the forecast of what would have happened without it, that I had to make before I decided to agree to that arrangement. I wonder if my right hon. friend (Mr. Churchill) has made that forecast. I will tell the House exactly what I think would have happened. I feel perfectly certain, in spite of the appeal which my right hon. friend suggested the late Prime Minister ought to have made, that within a few months the Government of another Party, and that the Party to which I belong, would have been responsible for the conduct of the war. I do not suggest for a moment that because I happen to be the Leader of that Party in this House, that I would shirk any responsibility which might have fallen upon me, but I took the view that I take now, that if that had happened we should at once have been faced with the question of compulsion. We as a Party would have tried to carry it immediately, but we could only have done it by dividing the country from top to bottom at that time, and we should have found, possibly that with greater vigour of action we should have had against us far more disunion in the nation, and the result would have been worse for this country in the struggle in which we are engaged.” 1917. THE DIARY OF THE MONTH. April 2-House of Lords. Officers of the Merchant Service -Speeches by Lord Buckmaster and Lord Lytton. British and Turkish Prisoners of War- House of Commons. Military Service (Review 3.-House of Lords. British Officers Prisoners of War in Germany-Lord Salisbury's motion agreed to. Speeches by Lord Derby, Lord Gainford, and Lord Curzon. Labour for Agriculture-Speeches by the Duke of Marlborough and Lord Derby. House of Commons. Military Service (Review of Exceptions) Bill read a third time by 137 to 19 (majority 118) Speeches by Mr. Bonar Law and Mr. Churchill. South Aberdeen By-Election consequent on the resignation of Mr. G. B. Esslemont (L). Number of Registered Electors—13,791. Sir John Fleming (L) Professor J. R. Watson (Ind.) 3,283. 1,507-1,776. 333. Representation unchanged. 1910 (Jan.) (13,496). 1910 (Dec.) (13,657). 5,862 3,997 4.-House of Lords. Military Service (Review of Exceptions) Bill read a second time and passed all remaining stages-Speeches by Lord Derby and Lord Crewe. House of Commons. Motion for Adjournment (1) Sir John Jellicoe on the Navy's Part. "The Navy's business, so far as the Army is concerned, is to hold the ring; to get the Army to its destination; to keep open its communications and its supplies; and to see that its operations are not interfered with. But the Navy cannot win the war; the war has to be won on shore. We cannot get at the Germans. Their ships stop inside their ports, and if they come out to fight they will not go back again, I hope. To win the war we must have, as Sir William Robertson says, men for the Army. The other directions in which the Navy exerts its power during the war are first, its business is to defeat the High Sea Fleet whenever it appears; secondly, to sink enemy submarines whenever they are found (as difficult a task, I suppose, as was ever put before any Navy); thirdly, to keep open the communications to this country for our food supplies and munitions; and, fourthly, to stop supplies getting into the enemy's country and to see that any enemy ship which gets afloat has a very short life. These are the tasks which the Navy has set itself to do." (2) Sir William Robertson on the Army's Need of Men. "You ask how many men do we want? My answer is the same as I made to the Government a few days after taking up my present post. It is that we ought not to expect to win a war such as this unless and until every man and woman in the country does a full day's work of an essential nature. Many times during the last sixteen months the question of man-power has been considered, and I have never varied my statement to the Government. I have always said that it is impossible to put a limit to the number of men needed for the Army, because the task is so huge that we must have all the men who can be spared from the Navy, the various industries, agriculture, and other employments essential to the prosecution of the war. It is not for me to say how many men can be got, or from where they are to come, but surely it should be possible, seeing the great reserve of men still in the country, and with a proper adjustment of man-power, to give the Army the men needed, and our immediate needs are half a million of men between now and July next. The failure to get these men will undoubtedly involve a prolongation of the war, and consequent prolongation of hardship and misery." (3) Sir John Simon on Proportional Representation and the Speaker's Conference Report. 'He was sorry that there had been some hinting to the effect that the proportional representation part of the scheme did not stand in the same position as the rest. He was anxious about it for the practical reason that if they once began pulling a brick out of the structure he was not certain what would be the effect on its centre of gravity. It had taken five months' work to build the structure up, and while he was perfectly aware that there were all sorts of shortcomings, at present it stood together, and it would be a very serious responsibility for anybody to take a brick out, divide it into half-bricks, and throw them at proportional representation." 1917. April 4.-(1) Sir John Jellicoe and (2) Sir William Robertson at the Trade Card System Conference on the need for more Men. 5.-House of Lords. Royal Assent to Military Service (Review of Exceptions) Act and other Acts. House of Commons. Formal business, PARLIAMENT ADJOURNED. Temperance Deputation to Mr. Lloyd George on South Belfast By-Election consequent on the appoint- Number of Registered Electors-12,111. Representation unchanged. 10. Mr. G. N. Barnes at Glasgow on War Pensions. 5,585 2,722 12. Mr. Lloyd George and the American Ambassador Lord Bryce and the American Ambassador at the Licence Holders' Deputation to Mr. Bonar Law 13. Mr. Hodge at Kew on Labour after the War. National Insurance Deputation to Lord Rhondda on Housing. 17.-House of Lords, Formal business. House of Commons. Parliament and Local (3) Sir John Simon at the National Liberal Club on |