The Prime Minister has appointed a Parliamentary Committee of five
to consider the Alien question. Four of the five members have for a long time been associated with a strong anti-alien cam- paign. At the same time Sir George Cave has been hurriedly recalled from the Hague, and many newspapers, over-hastily we imagine, have jumped to the conclusion that his recall is entirely due to the Prime Minister's desire to place him at the head of a searching and immediate anti-alien movement. The chorus of approval with which the newspapers to which we have referred make known their reading of Sir 'George Cave's recall would be amusing if it were not startling. For these same newspapers only a month ago were insisting that no other question compared in importance with that of the prisoners of war. Now the prisoners of war seem to be forgotten in the excitement of the new " stunt." The antics of this part of the Press remind one rather of what may be called the enthusiastic irrelevance of a kitten. Every one knows the enthusiasm with which a kitten pursues a piece of paper or its tail, and yet within a fraction of a second will turn round and walk off sedately in the opposite direction as though its tail or the paper had never existed.
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