_Tuesday, April 20th._--When a local band at Cologne recently played the "Wacht am Rhein" the British officers present stood up, on the ground (as they explained to a surprised German) that _they_ were now the Watch on the Rhine. But are they? According to Colonel BURN the Army of the Rhine is now so short of men that it is compelled to employ German civilians as batmen, clerks and even telephone-operators; and Mr. CHURCHILL was fain to admit that it would not surprise him to hear that "some assistance has been derived from the local population." The Carnarvonshire police are peeved because they are not allowed to belong to any secret society except the Freemasons, and consequently are debarred from membership of the Royal Ante-diluvian Order of Buffaloes. Mr. SHORTT disclaimed responsibility, but it is expected that the Member for the Carnarvon Boroughs, who is notoriously sympathetic to Ante-diluvians (is not his motto _Apres moi le deluge_?), will take up the matter on his return from San Remo. Having had time to consider the Budget proposals in detail Mr. ASQUITH was less complimentary and more critical. Good-humoured chaff of the PRIME MINISTER on the demise of the Land Values Duties before they had yielded the "rare and refreshing fruits" promised ten years ago, was followed by a reasoned condemnation of the proposed increase in the wine duties, which he believed would diminish consumption and cause international complications with our Allies. The CHANCELLOR, again, had thought too much of revenue and too little of economy. He urged him--in a magnificent mixture of metaphors--to cut away those parasitic excrescences upon the normal administrative system of the country which now constituted an open tap. _Wednesday, April 21st._--The abolition of the Guide-lecturer at Kew Gardens was deplored by Lord SUDELEY and other Peers. But as, according to Lord LEE, out of a million visitors last year only five hundred listened to the Guide--an average of less than three per lecture--the Government can hardly be blamed for saving a hundred pounds. Retrenchment, after all, must begin somewhere. Sir DONALD MACLEAN cannot have heard of this signal example of Government economy or he would not have denounced Ministers so vehemently for their extravagance. His most specific charge was that in Mesopotamia they were "spending money like water in looking for oil." In a further defence of the Budget proposals Mr. CHAMBERLAIN disclaimed the notion that it was the duty of the Chancellor of the Exchequer to denounce in the House the Estimates which he had approved in Cabinet. His business was to find the money. Circumstances had altered his attitude to the Excess Profits Duty, and he was now determined to stick to it. Did not a cynic once say that nothing succeeds like excess? Mr. BARNES, who was loudly cheered on his return to the House, joined in the cry for economy. "Some departments," he declared, "existed only because they had existed."