Murray's advice had been met with dismay from some Liberal members of the coalition Cabinet, who were unhappy at the realignment of Britain's war effort towards total war and a massive commitment of troops to the Western Front. Augustine Birrell (Chief Secretary for Ireland), along with Reginald McKenna (Chancellor of the Exchequer), Walter Runciman (President of the Board of Trade) and Sir Edward Grey (Foreign Secretary) had contemplated joining Sir John Simon (Home Secretary) in resigning in protest at the conscription of bachelors, due to be enacted in January 1916. Birrell wrote to the Prime Minister (29 December) that he and Runciman agreed that finance and "strategic policy as expounded in Murray's long, unconvincing and frightening paper" were more important than conscription.[60]