24 MARCH 1917, Page 2

" To suppose," he goes on, "that these experts were

tongue- tied or paralysed by a nervous regard for the possible opinion of their political superiors is to suppose that they had really abdicated the functions which they were intended to discharge, and that the-Committee lost the whole benefit of their presence as its expert advisers." In other words, Mr. Asquith insists that the position of the expert was that of the man who says : " Strike, but hear me." And the experts knew that it was so ; and further, the statesmen knew that -they knew it.