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The relation between the Foreign Office and public opinion offers a problem of a far less soluble nature. We have in the last few weeks had sad examples of the extent to which a foreign problem can excite or confuse the public mind. In the distant days when foreign policy was considered to be the prerogative of the Cabinet or Foreign Secretary, in the more recent days when it was regarded as something above, and therefore detached from, party controversy, the task of the Foreign Secretary, although often difficult, was not insuperable. But if he is to be publicly pressed for information which he cannot divulge without causing offence to other countries, or criticised in moments of acute crisis in such a manner as to suggest dissension in Parliament, it will become impossible to conduct any foreign policy other than one which is tentative, ambiguous and imprecise. And whatever may be said of the merits or demerits of any policy, it is quite certain that a policy of vague and hesitant empiricism must be always bad. We must all recognise- that a Parliamentary Committee which dis- cusses in private matters which deeply interest the public has many disadvantages ; but since correct judgement is based on correct know- ledge, there is no disadvantage comparable to the inability of tbe Foreign Secretary to take Members into his complete confidence.
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