SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
[Notice is Mi. column does not neresearity preelale tabrevient moles•.] The Council for the Study of International Relations ha pub- lished at 10 Adelphi Terrace, WC., a sensible pamphlet on The Foreign Office and the Foreign Services Abroad (6d.), which describes clearly the heterogeneous duties of our Diplomatic and Consular Services and emphasizes " the complete dependence of the Foreign Office on the rest of the Government." It is often forgotten that. however the defects of its organization may be remedied, " the Foreign Office will still remain largely a more channel of action and information, and not an organism with independent powers.' " The Foreign Office is, more than any other department, dependent upon, not only its own Parliamentary head, but the Cabinet and the machinery of Government as a whole ; and that means that it is dependent upon the British electorate." There is much truth in this, and in the corollary that our foreign policy will not become more efficient unless the British public will take a more continuous and more intelligent interest in foreign affairs. We should add that the Foreign Office, by supplying more information in an intelligible form, might assist very materially to this end.
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