The Prime Minister and the Press The tributes paid by
the Prime Minister, at the annual dinner of the Parliamentary Press Gallery last week, to the British Press, and especially his declaration of faith in the value of a free press, will be peculiarly gratifying to journalists and to the public at this moment. A few weeks ago there was genuine, and not unreasonable, suspicion that the extreme sensibility to criticism of foreign dictators might impose some restriction, of an unofficial kind, on the liberty with which they are criticised in Britain, if not at home ; Mr. Chamberlain's speech should satisfy everyone that their protests will. have no effect on him. But his remarks inspire some pertinent reflections. He has now, in turn, guaranteed that there shall be no military conscription, no industrial conscription, tio attempt to restrict the right to criticism and expression. In this he has the support of the vast majority of the country ; though there are some distinguished men who appear to be firmly convinced of the moral value of restriction and conscription as gestures which will impress the totalitarian States. What more liberty-loving observers must ask is whether in fact an enormous and increasing armaments programme, which can have no other significance than a preparation for war, can be carried through without surrendering any of the democratic liberties. The answer is that it can ; but only on condition that the nation is volun- tarily and spontaneously convinced of the rightness and neces- sity of the policy which armaments are made to serve. It is for that conviction that the Government must strive.
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