tunately
silent.

All we learn from its severely restrained pages is that the PRIME
MINISTER made a long statement about recruiting. From this we gather
that if fifty thousand of the unattested married men do not enlist
before the end of May they will be compelled to do so; and that
altogether the Government will insist on getting 200,000 men from this
source. The German General Staff will be surprised to learn that our
requirements are so modest, and will wonder, as we do, what all the
pother is about.

Perhaps Mr. LOWTHER did not take notes of the other speeches that were
delivered. At any rate he gives us no indication of their drift. All we
know is that in the course of some seven hours no fewer than sixteen
Members addressed the House. From this it may be inferred that the
absence of reporters has at least the negative advantage of conducing to
brevity of utterance. May we also infer that the speaking was as plain
as it was brief, and that for the time being the Palace of Westminster
has become the Palace of Truth?

[Illustration: Unique sketch by _Punch_ artist (concealed in clock
opposite), showing how the last reporter was detected in the Press
Gallery by the aid of a giant periscope.]

_Wednesday, April 26th._--So far as we are permitted to know what took
place--for the House of Commons had another Secret Session--in both
Houses it was Ireland, Ireland all the way. The Commons began by
granting a return relating to Irish Lunacy accounts, and then by an easy
transition passed to the report of the Sinn Fein rebellion in Dublin.

Colonel SHARMAN-CRAWFORD, who bears a name that all Ireland has solid
reason to respect, desiring to return to his native country, asked Mr.
BIRRELL what routes, if any, were open. Mr. BIRRELL did not know, but
intimated genially that he might be able to take absence of over the
gallant Colonel under his own protecting wing. The House appeared to
find humour in the idea of the CHIEF SECRETARY returning to his post,
and an Hon. Member inquired why he had ever left it.

The PRIME MINISTER gave a brief and, so far as it went, rosy-coloured
report of the situation in Dublin. Some Nationalist Volunteers were
helping the Government. The forces of the Crown were to be further
strengthened by a party of American journalists, armed to the teeth with
quick-firing pencils, who were going over to deal with "this most recent
German campaign."

This may have reminded Mr. ASQUITH that there wer