We have not space to go into the whole story
of intrigue as it is given, rightly or wrongly, in the Atlantic Monthly. What we do want to insist upon is that the publication of Cabinet secrete is absolutely fatal to the efficiencies, not to mention the decencies, of political life. There has for a very long time been an honour- able understanding that such matters are never to be made public, and it follows that there must be no attempt on the part of the principals in transactions to demand publication or eerai- publication. The correspondence shows that Mr. Lloyd George did urge Mr. Asquith to consent to publication. The fact that such publication would have been a confession of the weakness of the machinery for directing the war, and would have caused consternation here, was no doubt one of Mr. Aequith'e reasons for resigning. There cannot of course be a rigid rule about the publication of Cabinet secrete, for instances are conceivable in which secrete most be let out in the public interest. But the least that can be required of our statesmen is that they should have an instinct in these affairs.
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