compared with 385 millions in 1915 and 525 millions in 1913. The increase in the value of British exports has gone on steadily since November, 1915, and is some set-off against the heavy commitments abroad which are caused by colossal imports. The accounts of both imports and exports are much affected by higher prices, which show no sign yet of falling off. Supply of Fertilisers. It was announced on January 13th by the Food Controller that he had appointed a Committee to make such arrangements as may be necessary and expedient for the increase of supplies of fertilisers in the United Kingdom and for controlling so far as may be necessary their output and distribution. The following are the members of the Committee:-Captain Charles Bathurst, M.P. (Chairman), Mr. H. R. Campbell, Sir James J. Dobbie, Mr. R. R. Enfield, Captain. R. B. Greig, Mr. T. H. Middleton, Mr. W. Anker Simmons, Professor W. Somerville, Mr. G. J. Stanley, Mr. R. J. Thompson, Professor T. B. Wood. Mr. H. Chambers will be the Secretary to the Committee. Farm Machinery and Implements. The Ministry of Munitions announced, on January 10th, that an Agricultural Machinery Branch had been set up in conjunction with the Board of Agriculture and the Food Controller to deal with the control of the manufacture of agricultural machinery and implements. It is intended to class the manufacture of all such machinery and implements as munitions work. Mr. S. F. Edge has lent his services to the Ministry of Munitions as Director of this Branch, and Mr. E. Guy Ridpath is Deputy Director. An Advisory Committee of representatives of the agricultural machinery trade generally to advise the Branch has been established, on which the following gentlemen have consented to serve :-Messrs. A. Bornemann (Ruston, Proctor & Co., Ltd., Lincoln), R. H. Fowler (J. Fowler & Co., Leeds), W. Harrison (Harrison, Macgregor & Co., Leigh), J. Howard (G. & F. Howard, Bedford), E. C. Ransome (Ransomes, Sims, & Jefferies, Ipswich), J. Segar (R. Hornsby & Sons, Ltd., Grantham), with representatives of the Ministry of Munitions, the Board of Agriculture, and the Food Controller. Work for Prisoners of War. The Secretary of State for War has reconstituted the Committee dealing with proposals for the employment of prisoner of war labour. The Committee is now formed as follows:-Mr. J. F. Hope, M.P. (Chairman), Sir Howard Frank (Vice-Chairman), Col. T. A. H. Bigge, War Office; Mr. E. Sebag Montefiore, Home Office; Mr. S. Mager, Board of Agriculture and Fisheries; Mr. T. M. Taylor, Ministry of Munitions. Mr. G. D. Roseway is the Secretary. VI.-POINTS FROM WAR SPEECHES. [Other Extracts from War Speeches will be found in Defeat "Impossible." "I have just returned from a Council of War of the four great Allied countries (at Rome) upon whose shoulders most of the burden of this terrible war falls. I cannot give you the conclusions; there might be useful information in them for the enemy. There were no delusions as to the magnitude of our task; neither were there any doubts about the result. I think I could say what was the feeling of every man there. It was one of the most businesslike conferences that I ever attended. We faced the whole situation, probed it thoroughly, looked the difficulties in the face, and made arrangements to deal with them-and we separated more confident than ever. All felt that if victory were difficult, defeat was impossible. There was no flinching, no wavering, no faint-heartedness, no infirmity of purpose. There was a grim resolution at all costs that we must achieve the high aim with which we accepted the challenge of the Prussian military caste and rid Europe and the world for ever of its menace. No country could have refused that challenge without loss of honour. No one could have rejected it without impairing national security. No one could have failed to take it up without forfeiting something which is of greater value to every free and self-respecting people than life itself." Mr. LLOYD GEORGE, Guildhall, January 11th, 1917. "A Great Tower In the Deep." "I will tell you one thing that struck me (at the Rome Conference), and strikes me more and more each time that I visit the Continent and attend these Conferences. That is the increasing extent to which the Allied peoples are looking to Great Britain. They are trusting to her rugged strength, to her great resources, more and more. To them she looks like a great tower in the deep. She is becoming more and more the hope of the oppressed and the despair of the oppressor, and I feel more and more confident that we shall not fail the people who put their trust in us. When that arrogant Prussian caste flung the signature of Britain to a treaty into the waste-paper basket as if it were of no account, they knew not the pride of the land they were treating with such insolent disdain. They know it now. Our soldiers and sailors have taught them to respect it." British Staying-Power. Mr. LLOYD GEORGE, Guildhall, January 11th, 1917. "I wonder if you have sometimes looked, as I have in the past, at a long-distance race. You have seen two men running side by side, and no one could tell which looked like the winner. Suddenly one falls behind; the other forges ahead. Why? Because the one has lost heart and the other feels certain of victory. That is our position to-day. One effort, one united supreme effort, and the goal will be reached. Ι remember in the early days of the war seeing a cartoon in a French newspaper which represented the soldiers in the trenches looking back, and above it were the words-Pourvu que les civils tiennent. 'If only the civilians will hold fast.' The civilians will hold fast. I have never come to this historic building since the war-a building which all through our history has represented the heart of the Empire from which its lifeblood has pulsed outwards-and I have never looked around at those memorials of another struggle, almost as difficult, dangerous, and deadly as that in which we are now engaged, without feeling that in them there is good omen for the future. What was it that enabled our forefathers to carry through that long struggle to its final triumph? It was not their loans, their commerce, or their wealth. It was not even the valour of their sons. It was the staying power of our forefathers. We need that to-day, and we shall need it until we have won that victory to which we are all looking forward-a victory not based on a lust of conquest, but a victory which will mean peace, the peace which will bring back to their homes those who are fighting-peace now; yes, but security for peace in the time to come. Mr. BONAR LAW, Guildhall, January 11th, 1917. Peace. "Do you think there is anyone of us who does not long for peace? Let me remind you of this. After the German Note was issued the subject was discussed in the House of Commons. Two speeches were made, one by the late Prime Minister, the other by the present Prime Minister. The late Prime Minister, as you know, during the last months of his office was bearing the burden of the suffering entailed by the loss of a gifted son, and he has other sons who are running the same risk. The present Prime Minister has two sons who are in front of the foe and are facing risks which I am sure he would rather face himself. That is true of nearly every man who is responsible for the government of this country, in office or out of it. Do you think if we could get peace, a real peace, that we would hesitate for a moment to secure it? I remember being present last year at a memorial service in Westminster Abbey tothe Australians and New Zealanders who had died on the plains of Gallipoli and who on those plains had made that spot sacred for ever to every one who bore the British name. It was in every sense a moving spectacle. At it words were used which have remained fresh in my memory. They are words which expressed the very heart feeling of every man and woman in this country, the fixed determination of the British Empire and all our Allies. The words are:-'We are resolved that our sons and daughters shall not have laid down their lives in vain.'" Mr. BONAR LAW, Glasgow, January 18th, 1917. For a Creat National Purpose. "This is a great national loan for a great national purpose. Both during the war and after we must make sure that our finances stand on a firm and solid basis. May I put it to you that the Chancellor of the Exchequer has a right to expect everyone of us to help him? I know his difficulties; they are great, but he can, and will, surmount them. It is, however, an indispensable condition of his success that he should have the willing and generous support of every class in the community. We are engaged in a war in which the stability of British finance is as essential for final victory as the superiority of the Allied forces by land and sea. The appeal which is now being made by the Government to British citizens must not, and will not, fall upon deaf ears. The enemy hope for victory; we mean to win. Resolved as we are upon the issue, we must be unsparing as to the means. Who lends now to the State gives to mankind. As you look for peace, for reparation, and for security, so lend freely to the utmost of your power." Mr. MCKENNA, Guildhall, January 11th, 1917. "In estimating the minimum requirements the attainment of which would justify us in laying down the sword and absolve our duty to the memory and the honour of those who have given their lives in the faith of a great cause, we cannot ignore what the war has taught us as to the character and the methods of the enemy. It began with a deliberate and a cynically acknowledged infraction of a treaty obligation. It has from the first been conducted with a steady disregard not only of the old chivalry between belligerents, but of civilised usage and of common humanity in a growing series of calculated crimes, which for the moment reaches its climax to-day. Reparation, restitution-there is something tangible in them, even though so much has been destroyed that can never be replaced, and so much has vanished that cannot be recalled. But what of the future? Of what avail in such a case are mere words and promises, the multiplication of parchments and protocols, which can be torn to pieces in far less time than it took to write them down? We cannot be content, we ought not to be content unless the Allies are left with solid safeguards against the breaking loose afresh of the ambitions, with their attendant train of carnage and cruelty, which during these three years have wrought the most desolating havoc recorded in the annals of the world. "That is what we mean by a victorious peace-a peace which has in it the prospect of endurance because it will conforn not only to the best interests, but to the social and moral necessities of corporate mankind. More than that we do not desire; less than that, without dishonor and confessed failure, we cannot accept. The Allies have already outlined in general but quite intelligible terms what, in view of these considerations, will be the character of their concrete demands. So far as I know, their statement has elicited from the writers and the spokesmen of the enemy nothing but a derisory response. Then I say to you and to my fellowcountrymen outside, we must fight on, with stout hearts, with redoubled purpose, and by a wise and united concentration of all our resources ensure that decisive victory in the field which is the necessary and the only possible precursor of a solid and enduring peace.' MR. ASQUITH, Ladybank, February 1st, 1917. What "We are Fighting for." "It is for us a question of life or death. We must have stronger guarantees for the future peace of the world. We have rejected the German proposal to enter into peace negotiations, not from any lust of conquest, not from any feeling of vindictiveness, or even from a desire of revenge. We have rejected it because peace now would be a peace based upon German victories. It would mean that the German machine that has been the curse of the world would remain still unbroken. It would mean also that that machine would be in the hands of the same men who for a generation prepared for war and would set about preparing for it again, and at their own time would plunge us again into the miseries which we are enduring to-day. our 66 What President Wilson is longing for we are fighting for, sons and brothers are dying for, and we mean to secure it. The hearts of the people of this country are longing for peace, a peace which will bring back in safety those who are dear to us, but a peace which will mean that those who will never come back shall not have laid down their lives in vain." Mr. BONAR LAW, Bristol, January 24th, 1917. FRANCHISE AND ELECTORAL REFORM. THE SPEAKER'S CONFERENCE REPORT. I. THE GENESIS OF THE CONFERENCE. The Speaker's Conference on Electoral Reform has now concluded its sittings (twenty-six in number) and presented its report-in a letter (dated January 27th, 1917) from the Speaker to the Prime Minister. Mr. Lowther recalls that the Conference was originally suggested in a speech made in the House of Commons on August 16th by Mr. Walter Long (see MAGAZINE for September, 1916, at page 431). The idea "seemed to find favour," and soon afterwards the Speaker accepted an invitation from the Prime Minister (Mr. Asquith) to convene a conference of members of both Houses of Parliament and to preside over it. The members of Parliament and peers whom the Speaker selected appeared to him to be eminently representative of the various shades of political opinion in Parliament and in the country upon the special topics connected with electoral reform. Their numbers were as nearly as possible proportionate to the strength of pre-war parties in the House of Commons. On the question of woman suffrage he endeavoured to obtain an equal division of opinion, so far as it could be ascertained, but many obvious difficulties presented themselves in discovering the views of gentlemen upon that important topic. The terms of reference were as follows: -- 'To examine and, if possible, submit agreed resolutions on the following matters: (a) Reform of the franchise. (b) Basis for redistribution of seats. (c) Reform of the system of the registration of electors. (d) Method of elections and the manner in which the costs of elections should be borne." As constituted at its first meeting, the Conference was composed as follows: Lord Burnham (U) Col. Page Croft (U) Mr. Pringle (L) Sir Robert Williams (U) Earl Grey was too unwell to take any part; |