On Thursday, September 21st, Mr. Lloyd George received a Deputation
from the Labour Party and spoke to them on the Near Eastern policy of the Government. To the general surprise it was afterwards announced that the interview had been secret. it is difficult to understand why the Labour men allowed them- selves to be muzzled in this way. We write of their being muzzled because this was the healthy interpretation put upon the episode by the public. The interpretation of the Labour representatives themselves was, we suspect, quite different. Probably Mr. Lloyd George appealed to their sense of their own importance by telling them that they could sway the situation—as truth to tell they generally can when it is Mr. Lloyd George who is to be swayed—and that he relied upon their well-known discretion not to do anything dangerous in such a grave crisis but to remember that the nation would be their judge.
