Last night, however, a difficulty arose which may probably wreck the whole scheme. The Government counted on putting their whole scheme to the House as one resolution, This would, they hoped, enable them to carry it after two or three nights' debate, and enable a Boundary Commission to get to work during the recess to prepare a Bill for next session. Last night, however, it was claimed by Mr. Gibson Bowles that each item of the Government proposal must be put as a separate resolution, to which separate amendments might be moved. The Speaker has taken' until to-day to consider his decision; and if ho finds Mr. Bowles to be right, thoro seems to be no chanco of getting the resolution through this session, and an autumn session is out of the question, as the Government know that they could not depend on their supporters turning up to save them from defeat. Twice this week the Ministerial Whips have had to put up one Conservative member after another to talk against time in order to save tle Government from defeat upon a snap division, The Volunteers, The troubles of the Government are endless, but they serve only to emphasise Mr. Balfour's remarkable skill in steering through them. All the Volunteer officers in the Houso—the Unionist as well as the Liberal—aro deeply incensed against Mr. Arnold Forster and the War Office on account of the circular which was" recently sent round to commanding officers requiring returns as to the efficiency and physical fitness of the men under them. It was regarded as the preliminary to a wholesale reduction of the volunteer force by getting rid of all those who did not full the standard.of physical fitness required for service abroad. Mr, Arnold Forster has explained again and again that it was nothing of the sort; but he cannot of course deny that the ascendancy of the Bluowater School" logically entails such a course, If the navy is sufficient to render invasion absolutely impossible there is no need of a volunteer torve for purely home service. Its only use in this case is to train mou who in case vf need would go to fight our battles abroad, and in that case men who are not fit for foreign service are of no use—or at all events of very little uso—in the volunteer force. It is not surprising therefore that all Mr. Arnold Forster's assurances failed to appose the angry volunteers and their friends, and that the Government majority on this question fell to twenty-six.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.