Arms Traffic Accusations The British protest against the mention of
King George's name in the evidence given before the Senate inquiry into the arms traffic was in the natural order of things, and the State Department has expressed suitable regret. But the Senate Committee is perfectly right in refusing for this or any other reason to hold the hearing in private. Such a procedure would, apart from other considerations, defeat its own object. There is no privacy in the United States, and not much anywhere else in these days. Allegations, true or false, made before the committee are at any rate set down explicitly in black and white. If they were made behind closed doors they would get into print in any kind of distorted or exag- gerated form. The British protest was entirely spon- taneous. It seems in fact to have been made by the Ambassador, without waiting for instructions from the Foreign Office. But objections by sonic smaller States may quite well have been prompted by one or other of the firms implicated in the enquiry. At any rate less publicity would suit their book well.
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