sought to induce them to change their minds. His principal argument was
that a Minister would only cost five hundred pounds a year more than a
Secretary and would secure the "harmony in the coal-trade" now so
conspicuously lacking. The Peers evidently thought this too good to be
true, for they proceeded to reassert their previous decision by 48 to 23.

[Illustration: A DISTINGUISHED STRANGER.

M. KRASSIN CONTEMPLATES THE COMMONS.]

There was a big assemblage in the Commons to hear the PRIME MINISTER'S
statement on Poland. The Duke of YORK was over the Clock, flanked by the
Archbishop of CANTERBURY on one side and Messrs. KAMENEFF and KRASSIN (who
sound, but do not look, like a music-hall "turn") on the other.

Some facts bearing, more or less, on the situation were revealed at
Question-time. Mr. CHURCHILL denied that he had ever suggested an alliance
with the Germans against Bolshevism, and, as we are keeping the Watch on
the Rhine with only thirteen thousand men--just three thousand more than it
takes to garrison London--perhaps it is just as well. He has, I gathered,
no great opinion of the Bolshevists as soldiers. In his endeavour to
describe the disgust of our troops in North Russia at being ordered to
retire before "an enemy they cordially despised" he nearly dislocated his
upper lip.

For two-thirds of his speech the PRIME MINISTER was the sober statesman,
discussing with due solemnity the grave possibilities of the Russo-Polish
crisis. The Poles had been rash and must take the consequences. We should
not help them unless the Bolshevists, not content with punishment,
threatened the extinction of Poland's independence.