Then the Prime Minister made one of those extra- ordinarily
pellucid speeches of his which leave the hearers with the peculiar. impression that nothing is really very complicated and difficult if only one will be a little reason- able about it, that after all there is only one rational, or indeed possible policy to take in thegiven circumstances, and that really there is nothing else to say about it. (And that impression was certainly confirmed by reading the meagre remnants of the debate.) He gave a per- fectly convincing survey of the Government's policy in its dissociation from the action of France and its dealing with the Turks. He met the one definite suggestion that had been made (that of Mr. Asquith) by declaring the scheme unpractical, for the simple reason that France would not hear of it. Later, when failure on the Ruhr had become apparent, would be the time for useful intervention.
