LORD ROBERTS'S WARNING.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECUTOR.1 SIR,—May I suggest one obvious way of giving practical effect to your suggestion of calling a round table conference of leaders from both parties to discuss a situation which is infinitely more important than even Home Rule or any other question of domestic politics P The Council of Imperial Defence as now constituted is a. party organization pure and simple. Why not recognize that the subject of national defence is not the concern of one political party alone, but of the whole of the realm—King, Lords, and Commons P If this view be in principle accepted, what could be more simple than a mere enlargement of the present Council by admitting to its meetings the Leaders of the Opposition in both Houses, and sufficient additional members to secure the adequate hearing of both sides ? A. Council thus formed and deliberating without publicity would be able to come to close quarters with all the various points which you have so ably sot forth. Can anyone doubt that a Council organized on some such non-party lines would carry infinitely greater moral weight with all the thinking portion of .the country? And would it not tend to remove some of that fatal paralysis which
at present prevents all improvement and any effectual con. sideration of the vital subject of national defence P—I am, Sir,
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