Turkey out of the War, and uniting in one friendly federation the States of
the Balkans.

_Wednesday, March 21st._--General MAUDE'S manifesto to the people of
Baghdad, with its allusions to the tyranny under which they had long been
suffering, did not escape the eagle eye of Mr. DEVLIN, ever anxious to
scarify British hypocrisy. So he drafted a long question to the PRIME
MINISTER, embodying the most salient passages of the manifesto. Much to his
disgust it appeared on the Paper without its "most beautiful and striking
passages." The SPEAKER explained that he had blue-pencilled "a good deal of
Oriental and flowery language not suitable to our Western climate." Not the
least part of the joke is the rumour that the manifesto was largely the
work of a Member of the House well versed in Eastern lore.

_Thursday, March 22nd._--The Ministry of National Service, being unprovided
at present with a Parliamentary Secretary, is supposed to be represented in
the House by Mr. ARTHUR HENDERSON. But as the Member for Barnard Castle has
important functions to perform in the War Cabinet and is rarely in the
House he usually deputes some other Member of the Government to answer
Questions addressed to him. To-day the lot fell upon Mr. BECK, who
good-temperedly explained, when a shower of "supplementaries" rained down
upon him, that he really knew nothing about the Department he was
temporarily representing. This led to a tragedy, for Mr. SWIFT MACNEILL
worked himself into a paroxysm of excitement over this constitutional
enormity, and finally sat down on his hat. "I only wish his head had been
in it," muttered a brother Irishman--from Ulster.

Believers in "the hidden hand," which is supposed to paralyse our military
efforts, are divided in opinion as to whether this cryptic member is most
actively employed by Lord HALDANE, Sir WILLIAM ROBERTSON or Sir EYRE CROWE,
Assistant-Secretary to the Foreign Office. They will probably regard Lord
ROBERT CECIL'S statement that some seven years ago Sir EYRE drew up a
memorandum calling the attention of Sir EDWARD GREY to the grave dangers
that threatened this country from Germany as further evidence of his
duplicity. The rest of the world will rejoice at Lord ROBERT'S spirited
vindication of "one of the ablest of our public servants," who, despite
Miss CHRISTABEL PANKHURST, is not one of "the three black crows" of
legendary fame.

When Sir H. DALZIEL, at the outset of his appeal to the Government