We have written in a leading article about the Savidge
Reports, but here we should like to say something about a matter which does not arise directly out of the inquiry. The debate in the House of COMmons whiCh will take place after we have gone to press Must haVe- the effect of identifying Sir John Bankes with the Moderate case for the police which will be assailed 'by the Labour Party. As the Home Secretary will in the main resist the Oppo- sition the result will be that the naive of Sir John Bankes will be drawn into a political controversy and will be used as a weapon of defence by the Home Secretary. It has been the tradition in this liberty-conscious country to glory in the independence of the Judiciary from the Executive. It is true that Sir John Bankes is no longer a Lord of Appeal, but it was because of his long and dis- tinguished connexion with the Bench that he was invited by the Home Secretary to preside over the inquiry. _ We think the Government ought seriously to consider whether they should not make it a rule that a Judge or eX-Judge should never be invited to take part in a mixed inquiry. Some Judicial inquiries are safe enough, such as those, for instance, over which Lord Mersey presided. But for a Judge or ex-Judge to be a member of a mixed court is to invite the very confusion between executive and judicial functions which all sensible people wish to avoid.
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