During the week it has been very generally believed that
the Cabinet has been passing through a condition of cryptic crisis owing to the refusal of Mr. Brodrick to endure without protest the slight he considers to have been placed upon him by the publication of the Report of the Committee on military reorganisation. We do not, of course, know anything for certain as to these rumours; but it would not be unnatural if Mr. Brodrick should feel annoyed, for little or no attempt seems to have been made to spare his feelings in the way in which the Report was given to the public. A greater display of tactlessness and blundering than was shown in the handling of the whole of this matter it would be difficult to imagine. But though we may sym- pathise with Mr. Brodrick for the manner in which he was thrown over, we are as convinced as ever of the soundness of the Report and of the need of carrying out its proposals to the full. We feel certain that if the Cabinet, with their habit of yielding to immediate pressure, no matter what the future consequenoes, were to throw over the Report, they would encounter the strongest disapproval in the country at large. The nation is determined that it shall not be deprived of a reform of the Army because the Prime Minister has inflicted a quite unnecessary amount of injury on the feelings of one of his colleagues. Such injuries must be satisfied in some other way than by jeopardising a great national interest.
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