By 1941 there were enough volunteers for five overseas divisions. Meanwhile, the Conservatives were pressuring King to advise that the Governor General introduce overseas conscription. The loss of two battalions at Hong Kong had shocked Canadian public opinion and there was a demand for Canada to do more to win the war. Meighen's attacks on King started to resonate, and in January 1942 Meighen resigned his seat in the Senate to enter the House of Commons via a by-election in the Toronto riding of York South, backed by the anti-King Liberal Premier of Ontario Mitchell Hepburn and a "Committee of 200" representing 200 of Toronto's most influential citizens. The Liberals did not run a candidate due to a convention that the Leader of the Opposition be permitted entry to the House, however, tacit support was given to CCF candidate Joseph W. Noseworthy with the historian Frank Underhill, who normally worked for the Liberals, writing the speeches for Noseworthy. As the acerbic, sharp-tongued Meighen tended to get the better of King in debates, the Prime Minister feared the return of his archenemy to the Commons, and to rob Meighen of his signature issue, announced that he was calling a referendum to release him from his promise made in September 1939 that there would be no overseas conscription. Arthur Meighen was defeated in the February 9, 1942 by-election to the CCF's Noseworthy.