As regards the first point, the term " Socialist," to
which Mr. MacDonald objects on the ground that it is an academic phrase, does define the political convictions of the Government, whereas " Labour " rather arrogantly implies that those who are outside the Labour Party do not labour. Mr. MacDonald's opinion about the Civil Servants who have helped him is worth quoting. He had been told by some people, he said, that the Civil Service would do everything it could to hamper a Labour Government. Then he described his own experience :— " The Civil Service is absolutely non-party. It is for no party. It is for the State. I feel perfectly certain when I say that whoever goes to those enormous Departments in Whitehall will always find from those highly trained and extraordinarily able men and women the most faithful service and most disinterested advice and support. You know how we used to criticize the way the Foreign Office was recruited. (A voice ' Why don't you now ? ') Because it has been changed. It is a great pity that our revolu- tionary critics are not up to date. I am bound to say that when I had to face some of those tremendously complicated problems, some of those almost hopeless problems, that I received support of a hearty character, of a well-informed and thoroughly self- sacrificing character ; I received that sort of support from the men with whom I had to work when I became Foreign Secretary."
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