Only by an extraordinary licence in the use of words
can it be said that Sir Frederick Maurice referred to " a secret document." He referred, not to a secret document, but in the most general way to having seen the relevant papers. Of course he saw such papers. In his position as D.M.O. he naturally had access to them. It is hardly credible that Sir George Cave, when he answered the question in the House of Commons, could have seen the censored statement. We cannot believe that he would have allowed himself to justify an act of political censorship of a very bad kind by making the deleted passage tear a sense which it cannot honestly Lear. As it is, Sir Frederick Maurice has been deprived of the opportunity of makirg a statement in self-defence which was of the most innocent kind. This is not fair dealing, and we hope that Sir George Cave will admit as much when he learns that ho was misled, as we feel sure he must have been.
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