Mr. Baldwin, however, it is said, does not wish Sir
Philip Cunliffe-Lister to resign, and we can quite understand and approve his reasons. No doubt Mr. Baldwin will see to it that no conflict between duty and interest arises. A Cabinet Minister cannot retain directorships, but if it were laid down that nobody could be a Minister whose relations owned shares the result would be most injuriously to restrict the fields+ of talent from which Cabinets are recruited. There must be sense and proportion in these things, thought nobody desires more than we do that the standards of honourable practice should be kept extremely high. In brief, it is not " business to expect Ministers to divest themselves of all forms of property in 'order to prove their purity of motive or in order to be rid of all ambiguous incentives when they engage in the multi- farious work of government. We have, however, a suggestion to make. We think a great deal more might be done in the direction of taking the opinion of Par- liament when particular questions of honour or delicacy arise. More often than not it is secrecy that does the mischief.
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