_Mr. Asquith_--The separation allowance does not begin, but as the honorable member has interjected that phrase I will add--because honorable members generally have been very good in not pressing us in regard to the separation allowances to soldiers who are actually serving--that that matter is receiving our daily and constant consideration, and I hope before the session comes to an end to be able to make a further announcement. But it does not arise with regard to this vote. Having made that defense, if defense were needed--I do not think it was--having made that statement of what has actually been done by the War Office in these very anxious days, and also having indicated that in those two important respects we are endeavoring to facilitate the process of recruitment and to remove any possibility of hardship, either to the individual recruit or to recruits collectively, I hope the committee will agree to pass a vote for another 500,000 men. I am perfectly certain if they do so the response will be no less keen--keen in spirit--and no less ample in scale than it has been in the days which have just gone by. An Army of 1,200,000. We shall then be in a position, as is apparent from the figures I have already read, to put something like--I am not giving exact figures--something like 1,200,000 men in the field. _Mr. Long_ (Strand)--Does that include the Indians? _Mr. Asquith_--No, it is entirely exclusive of them. This is the provision made by the mother country. And of course it is exclusive of the territorials. _Mr. F. Hall_--And of the national reserve? _Mr. Asquith_--Exclusive of the territorials, exclusive of the national reserve, and exclusive of the magnificent contributions promised from India and from our dominions, we here in these islands, this mother country, will be in a position to put into the field, enrolled as our regular army, something like 1,200,000 men. That is an effort which it is worth while making great sacrifices to attain. As regards money, I am perfectly certain that this House will be ready, willing, and even eager to grant it, if and when the occasion arises. What we want now is to make it clear, to those who are showing all over the kingdom this patriotic desire to assist their country in one of the most supreme and momentous crises in the whole of its long history, that they are not going to be treated either in a niggardly or unaccommodating spirit; but that they are going to be welcomed and that every possible provision is going to be made for their comfort and well-being, so that under the best possible conditions they will take their place and play their part in that magnificent army of ours which, as every one who has read the moving dispatch Sir John French [cheers] published this morning, will realize has never done its work better, never shown itself more worthy of long centuries of splendid tradition than in the last fortnight. [Cheers.] I ask the House to pass this vote for 500,000 men.