Mr. Chamberlain in a very able speech reinforced Mr. Asquith's
protest against these malevolent Press campaigns. The Government ought to protect the men serving under them, and to give them an unambiguous support. At the same time high officers were under .a similar obligation. " Although it is painful to me to say it, the War Office does not observe -the obligations of secrecy as faithfully, as completely, as every other office of which I have had experience." Ministers had caused suspicion by being intimately associated with great newspaper proprietors. "As long as you have the owner of a newspaper, as a member of your Administration, you will be held responsible for what he writes in that newspaper." The Govern- ment would never have proper authority until they severed that connexion with the Press. If they did not, "this lurking suspicion, these ambiguous, double, and incompatible obligations, will slowly sap their strength and destroy the Government."
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