With the fighting on the Western Front still giving every semblance of a situation of stalemate, even if the defence by the British of Ypres was being considered as “one of the most striking episodes in the annals of the British Army”, matters political again took centre-stage (page 9). While the House of Commons was debating the spy danger and soldiers’ pay, the Government was proposing a registration scheme for all those who wished to join up, which would help in raising the number of troops by a further million. This, of course, would cost money, and it was expected that a war loan of £200 million would be called for, and that income tax might also have to rise, to “something like half-a-crown in the pound”, which would be a rate of 12.5%. How low that sounds a century on.