MARGINAL_ COMMENTS
By ROSE MACAULAY
-A COMMITTEE of Enquiry to whiCh I belong explored at its last session • avenues by which our Foreign Secretary might be given information on foreign affairs.
• thirster after knoWledge, Mr. Mander (who would he a suitable member of our Committee), if the Government has considered the problems that might arise from a German- Italian control of Spain, owns, with mild detachment, that the answer is in the negative.
My Committee ventures to put fortt a suggestion. The normal channeli of communication td our Foreign Office from Spain being somewhat obstructed by . the fact 'that His Majesty's Ambassador to that country has elected for the past year to reside in France, we suggest that the Foreign Secretary should join a circle. Earnest perusal of the Press, and particularly of that bright little periodical The Week, has convinced us - that circles "always " It 'is credibly reported in informed circleS " . . " It is reliably Said in 'German military circles, in French political in Czech • intelligenCe circles, in Albanian cOnipiratorial circles, in Greek espionage &de's 7 . (Yes; even Greek spies become reliable when in circles. Why? I suppose because news getS round.) My Committee -i'eSpeetftilly hopes that our Foreign Office staff will` join a dirCie.Ve'rhalis a correspondence circle ?) forthwith, anyhow until such time as His Majesty has again an 'ambassador ' domiciled in Spain. Alternatively, they might; if • they telt, that', it would instruct and enlighten them, join some BookClub. .
There are quite a number of these now ; three oftheprin- cipal ones are the Left (Henrietta Street), the Right Cross Road) and the Wrong (Villiers Sheet). We do 'not profess to know which_ of these categories of booki his most to teach the members of our Government kid` Our permanent CiVil Service. But soinething:1*(st be clonel; it cannot be right that *H.-AC's Government should &life such scanty information- where*ith to satisfy those hungry sheep, H.M.'s Opposition, who so patiently look up and are so sparsely fed.
• Another point tabled for enquiry "'by my Committee : Who are People ? We noticed last Sunday Weekji.thit certain journals spoke of Trafalgar' Square as the' People's meeting-place, set aside for the People's free speech: ' They deprecated the idea of free speech in . thii British square being permitted to . British Fascists; who chanced to be . engaged on a Sunday afternoon ramble and concluded it with a chat among the lions: For Fascists are not People ; they are Rats, and/or Whiskey-drinking Hyenas ; they make war on democracy by killing women-and-children first. So they should not be allowed free speech in • Trafalgar "Square, a privilege reserved for People and Pigeons, not for Rats. • The enquiry stands On the agenda Of.'my. Com- . mittee's - next session as " People : what are they,. what and when and why not, and, when not, what ? " If time allows, we shall also enquire into " Freedom of Speech : whom to and to Whom not ? and 'pais on to a problem connected with bombshells. Are they bombshells when they kill, 'Or only When they startle? And may those bombshells so bombshells frequently'droPped in Fleet Street be.'eqUallY 'correctly called 'bonibs, or even 'Shells ? My Committee has -a- notion that hointisheig are less fatal. than either bombs or But it will investigate and report.' . .• • •
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