Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 152, March 14, 1917Various
History
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 152, March 14, 1917
Various
English wit and humor -- Periodicals
Further protests against the mutilation of the Dardanelles Report were made
by Sir WALTER ESSEX, Sir CHARLES HOBHOUSE, and Sir JOHN JARDINE. Free
disclosure to all Members of Parliament, and no preferential treatment of
party-leaders, was their demand. Mr. BONAR LAW manfully resisted their
assaults, and the SPEAKER declined to accept a motion for the adjournment.
A word from Mr. ASQUITH would no doubt have quelled the storm, but as one
of the favoured few who are to receive the full Report he felt himself, I
suppose, precluded from saying it. The late Mr. LABOUCHERE would probably
have suggested that the difficulty should be solved, on the analogy of a
famous edition of MARTIAL, by issuing the Report as expurgated, together
with an appendix containing all the omitted passages. But there is no
LABOUCHERE in the House to-day--more's the pity.
What Mr. HOGGE does not know about pensions is not worth knowing. He has
already made havoc of more than one Government scheme, and unless he has an
official ring put in his nose he will evidently do his best to upset the
latest of them. On the whole, however, Mr. BARNES'S exposition of the new
pension scheme was well received. Though not unduly generous--that would be
impossible in the circumstances--it will at least, as Capt. STEPHEN GWYNN
put it, "enable us to look disabled men in the face."
_Wednesday, March 7th._--Lords SHEFFIELD and PARMOOR are much disturbed
because British subjects have been interned without trial, and had to be
reminded by the LORD CHANCELLOR that there was a war in progress, and that
it was better that individuals should lose a portion of their liberties
than that the community should lose them altogether.
A full appreciation of this truth might have prevented the Irish
Nationalists from seeking at this moment to get Home Rule out of cold
storage. If the attempt had to be made Mr. T.P. O'CONNOR was not perhaps
the best person to make it. For over an hour he meandered through the more
melancholy episodes of Irish history, from the Treaty of Limerick to the
Easter Monday rebellion, rather in the manner of one of those film-dramas
of which he is now the Censor. I am afraid his endeavour to prove that
Ireland is not "an irrational country, demanding impossible things," was
not entirely convincing.
It failed, at any rate--although backed by a brief appeal by Major WILLIE
REDMOND, which touched the House by its manifest sincerity--to convince the
PRIME MINISTER that this was the accepted time for plunging Ireland once
more into civil strife. Those parts of Ireland that wanted Home Rule could
have it to-morrow if they wished; neither he nor any other British
statesman would force the people of N.E. Ulster under a government they
disliked. When those two facts were thoroughly understood there might be a
chance of a settlement.
[Illustration: A TRUE IRISHMAN.
_Mr. John Redmond_. "I'VE FINISHED WITH THE BRITISH EMPIRE--
--EXCEPT, BEDAD, THAT WE'RE GOING TO BEAT THE BOSCH!"]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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