24 FEBRUARY 1917, Page 3

We mar, in fact, put the matter thus. Under a

policy dictated -by the -" State of Siege " argument, national self-sufficiency in the matter of food and munitions is the line of greatest safety. A secondary line of safety is supply from different parts of the Empire. These can never be closed to us under any interpretation of neutrality, or be subject to an embargo produced by enemy threats. They are of our own household.