On the Western front Verdun still rivets all eyes. The German hordes are closing in on the fortress, but at a heavier cost for each mile gained than they have ever paid before. Germany's colossal effort would inspire admiration as well as respect if she would only fight clean. The ugly stories of her treatment of prisoners have now culminated in the terrible record of the typhus-stricken camp at Wittenberg, where the German doctors deserted their post. [Illustration: THE REPUDIATION Martin Luther (to Shakespeare): "I see my countrymen claim you as one of them. You may thank God that you're not that. They have made my Wittenberg--ay, and all Germany--to stink in my nostrils."] [Illustration: THE GRAPES OF VERDUN THE OLD FOX: "You don't seem to be getting much nearer them?" THE CUB: "No, Father. Hadn't we better give it out that they're sour?"] The report of Mr. Justice Younger's Committee, in which the tale of this atrocity is fully told, is being circulated in neutral countries, and Mr. Will Thorne has suggested that it should also be sent to our conscientious objectors. It is well to administer some sort of corrective to the information diffused by the neutral newsmonger: Who cheers us when we're in the blues, With reassuring German news, Of starving Berliners in queues? The Neutral. And then, soon after, tells us they Are feeding nicely all the day, And in the old familiar way? The Neutral. Who sees the Kaiser in Berlin, Dejected, haggard, old as sin, And shaking in his hoary skin? The Neutral. Then says he's quite a Sunny Jim, That buoyant health and youthful vim Are sticking out all over him? The Neutral. Who tells us tales of Krupp's new guns, Much larger than the other ones, And endless trains chock-full of Huns? The Neutral. And then, when our last hope has fled, Declares the Huns are either dead Or hopelessly dispirited? The Neutral. In short, who seems to be a blend Of Balaam's Ass, the bore's godsend, And _Mrs. Gamp's_ elusive friend? The Neutral. In Parliament we have had the biggest Budget ever known introduced in the shortest Budget speech of the last half-century, at any rate. Mr. Pemberton Billing is doing his best every Tuesday to bring the atmosphere of the aerodrome into the House. Mr. Tennant has promised his sympathetic consideration to Mr. Billing's offer personally to organise raids on the enemy's aircraft bases, and the House is bearing up as well as can be expected under the shadow of this impending bereavement. Mr. Swift MacNeill is busy with his patriotic effort to purge the roll of the Lords of the peerages now held by enemy dukes. For the rest, up to Easter Week, the Parliamentary situation has been described as "a cabal every afternoon and a crisis every second day."