NEWS OF THE WEEK
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MUCH the most important event of the week in English affairs has been the publication of the Geddes Report on national economy. We have dealt at length elsewhere with the duty of the public with regard to this Report. Here we want to anticipate and strongly deprecate in advance a type of criticism which may be made against our leading article demanding the adoption of " the Report, the whole Report, and nothing but the Report." What we deem essential in the Report is the allocation to each Department of the sum of money which the nation can afford to spend. The essential point, that is to say, is the ration. This should be insisted upon or weshall find that the proposed savings will gradually be whittled away by piecemeal criticism and will vanishlike the Cheshire cat. Nothing but the Bureaucratic Smile will remain. Within the borders of the ration allowed to each Department we weuld grant com- plete freedom for such distribution of expenditure as is thought best. We must now summarize the principal contents of this most important Report.
