Mr. Wood, the Minister for Education, who was the British
delegate to the League when the decree was presented, defended himself by saying that the decree had been passed by the Technical Committee of the Saar, which is composed of eight or ten representatives of the inhabitants. That fact had weighed considerably with the Council. If he had resisted the decree Great Britain would have been accused of interfering with " the men on the spot." His consent, however, had been given very reluctantly. The Government now proposed that there should be an impartial inquiry by means of the ordinary machinery of the League. The House of Commons approved of this course,, and we sincerely hope that something satisfactory will come of it. It would be intolerable that Germany should be given any excuse for saying that the. League is a hollow fraud, that all its pious ambitions amount to nothing, and that, when the interests of the strongest members of the League are concerned the League can prove itself to be a mere bully—a second edition of the Holy Alliance.
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