2 APRIL 1904, Page 2

On Saturday last was published the final Report of the

Esher Committee, together with a covering and explanatory letter addressed to the Prime Minister. We have dealt at length elsewhere with a matter where, in our opinion, the Report of the Committee should not be adopted, but we must point out that the change we desire does not affect the principles of the Report, but is a matter of detail, though one of far-reaching importance. It is impossible to give here any adequate precis of the highly complicated and technical recom- mendations of the Committee, but we may note that they insist very strongly on the need for establishing a Secretariat to be attached to the Committee of Defence. The establish- ment of this Secretariat has been strongly attacked on the ground that it will set up a kind of imperium in imperio, and even supersede the authority of the Prime Minister and the

Cabinet. We cannot agree. As long as the Premier is strong and knows his own mind, the Secretariat will be nothing more than a useful and well-infermed servant, ready to acquire and present information in the best form. If, on the other hand, the Premier is weak and undecided, he is sure to be under somebody's influence, and it is better that this influence should be that of an instructed and definite body than of a private secretary or a friend. Besides, it is useless to construct a piece of administrative machinery on the assumption that the Prime Minister is not to be trusted to keep a Department in its place. A reformer must either abandon the effort to reform, or else assume a Prime Minister worthy of his trust.