A .suggestion in the Times on Tuesday that Mr. Austen Chamber-
lam might enter the War Cabinet led the same day to the opening of a most discreditable attack upon him in the Northcliffe—or Government--Press. The Daily Mail, following the Evening News after the regular manner of these Press campaigns, had the audacity to suggest that Mr. Chamberlain resigned office because he was directly
responsible for the mistakes of the Indian Army authorities in Mesopotamia. It is, or should be, perfectly well known that Mr. Chamberlain resigned on what we must unhappily call an old- fashioned punctilio of honour. As Secretary for India, he was technically responsible for the Indian Army, though, like the Cabinet, he simply followed the advice of the exports. He gave up his office, unfortunately for India and Great Britain, so that the Government might have a free hand in dealing with all the high officials who had failed in their duty. The whole War Committee of the Coalition Cabinet, as the Mesopotamian Commission pointed out, shared the responsibility for the misadventure.
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