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Show oo OPPOSITION NOW LESS FORMIDABLE London, Jan 7, 10:30 p m The political situation today was calmer after the overwhelming vote obtained by the government in tho house Thursday Thurs-day night on the first reading of its compulsion bill. The reassuring size of the goxernment's majority offset to a considerable degree the antl-con-scnptionist vote of tho labor congress, which also was partly discounted by the attitude, of such Important leaders as Arthur Henderson, who resigned as president of the board of education, nnd John Ward, George Xicoll Barnes ana jonn woagc, memoers or tne house of commons. The position of these men is that the vote of the labor congress was too hasty and ill considered to be regarded regard-ed as reflecting the actual feeling of the labor men of the country Parliament Meets Monday. Parliament did not meet today and will not sit again until Monday. The indications are that the conscription bill will be passed through the house of commons in oicter that it ina reach the house of lords In ample time for passage before the end of the month. In some quarters talk of a general election still persists, but it is certain that a considerable part of even the opponents of compulsion do not want a resort to the ballot. Gossip is generally agreed that Premier Pre-mier Asquith will have little difficulty diffi-culty in filling the vacancies in his (cabinet caused by 'the resignation of Mr. Henderson and Sir John A. Simon, the home secretary. Herbert L. Samuel, Sam-uel, at present postmaster general, is the most talked of as Sir John A. Simon's Si-mon's successor, but there has been no general agreement in the gossip as to the probable man for Mr. Henderson's Hender-son's place. Referendum Proposed. To the American reader one of the most interesting suggestions heard in London today was the proposal to in-troduce in-troduce the referendum as an alternative alterna-tive for a general election, if danger-ous danger-ous hostility appears to be developing in the country at large during the later stages of the conscription bill before parliament. The referendum frequently has been suggested in England during the last few years as a desirable addition addi-tion to the legislative machinery of the kingdom. It was adopted as a part of the Unionist program of constitutional con-stitutional reform five- or six years ago. Additional prominence was given to H in December, 1010, when Arthur J. Balfour, then leader of the opposition, gave his pledge at a monster Unionist meeting in London1 that no tariff reform re-form bill would be enacted without its submission Jo the referendum. BUI Not Pressed. A bill providing for the use of the referendum in disputes between the house of lords and the house of commons com-mons was introduced in parliament with influential backing in 1911, but was not pressed to the final stage. The advocates of tho referendum now plead that tho question of compulsion, compul-sion, being isolated from all other questions of domestic politics, Is particularly par-ticularly suitable for the test of a popular vote. Moreover, they say that the vote even of the men In the trenches on a simple yes and no question ques-tion could be taken without inconvenience, inconve-nience, whereas the ordinary parliamentary parlia-mentary ballot would be impossible oo |