London, Jan. 19.
In the House of Commons to-day Sir John Simon moved an amend-mont to the Compulsory Mu ry Bill, namely requiring the Bill to go Tribunal and if not be placed on If the total so h: should be automatically en: listed by an Order in Coune:.
The amendment was defeated by 253 to 53.
Major-General Bir Ivor Herbert moved an amendment to include en the Bill not only those men who were eighteen years of age on August 15, 1915, but also those wh" should subsequently become sightesn years of age.
Th: Rt Hon. Walter Long said that Lord Kitchener did not desire this amendment to be passed, believing that the Bill as it stands give the number of men reqwited for victory. The amendment wax defeated.
London, Jan, 18.
Mr. J. H. Thomns, the Labour M.P. for Derby and the protagonist of the Labour opponents of the Compulsory Service Bill, in an interview, declared that' once the Bill became law there should be no question of strike. He would have no hand in promoting industrial revolution so long as the war continued. Provided Mr. Asquith's promises were kept regarding the safeguarding of the measure from and agreeable to open its doors to India, which had contributed its full share in the great Imperial ordeal and whose interests in the future would be so interwoven with those of other parts of the Em} that no Imperial conference would be complete which did not include India (Cheers).
Sir George Reid said that after the war there must be a readjustment of the relations between the Dominions and Colonies forming the Imperial Empire. These must never be the subject of party conflict. "After the magnificent loyalty displayed by our fellow-subjects in India we must be more anxious than ever to assist in the development of that part of the Empire as well as every other part as rapidly as possible."—Reuter Special.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.