d. Lord ROBERT CECIL, who has lately
developed an unlawyer-like tendency to jump to conclusions ahead of the
facts, made what sounded distinctly like a suggestion that the British
officers on the spot had been remiss in their duty, and thereby earned from
Mr. CHURCHILL a dignified castigation which pleased the House.

Crowned with olive-branches plucked from San Remo the PRIME MINISTER
celebrated one of his now familiar peace-triumphs. Everybody knows the
procedure on these occasions--the crowded House, the cheers raised by the
faithful Coalitionists as the victor is seen making his way to the Table,
and then the speech, so unvarying in its construction that I fancy there
must be a sealed pattern for it in the archives of No. 10, Downing Street.
First comes a recital of the immense difficulties of the problems to be
solved--in this case including a really serious difference of opinion with
our good friends the French; then a little comic relief at the expense of
his arch-critic in the Press, who on this occasion had surpassed himself in
"simian clatter"; next a summary of the wonderful results achieved--chiefly
the establishment of direct relations with the hitherto boycotted
Governments of Russia and Germany; and lastly a declaration that all
differences and difficulties had melted away, and that henceforward the
Allies would be a band of brothers.

Once more Mr. ASQUITH disappointed his more impetuous supporters and
displayed his statesmanship by a speech in which he practically said ditto
to the PRIME MINISTER; the only suspicion of a sting being contained in his
suggestion that the Supreme Council had now outlived its usefulness and
should promptly be replaced by the League of Nations.

Mr. BOTTOMLEY, on the contrary, was all sting and no statesmanship. I
gather that he has been conducting an unofficial conference on his own, and
as the result of his conversations with distinguished but anonymous foreign
statesmen has arrived at quite different conclusions from those of the
PRIME MINISTER. The fact that he was kept waiting on the pier at Boulogne
while the British Delegation went off in a special steamer, on which he was
not invited to embark, may have imparted an extra spice of rancour to his
strictures.

* * * * *

[Illustration: _Betty (hearing the cuckoo's call the first time)._ "MUMMY,
DEAR, DO ALL THE OTHER DICKY-BIRDS HAVE TO GO AND FIND IT NOW?"]

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