The House of Commons on Thursday was occupied with a
fierce and bitter debate on the revelations of Sir Robert Anderson. We cannot make any attempt here to go into the merits of the case, but we desire to say with all the emphasis at our command that the revelations by officials, in which they make use of knowledge obtained by them in the course of State service, is to be deprecated in the strongest possible way. We can find no excuse for Sir Robert Ander- son's action, The statements made in Blackwood's Magazine were not used to defend himself from unjust attack, but were purely gratuitous gossiping. It is clear, however, that half- revelations are specially objectionable, and therefore it is better that now the story should be told in full. That, we judge from his letter in Friday's Times, is the intention of Sir Robert Anderson. We must add that Sir Robert Ander- son has done the cause of the Union anything but good service by his action. He has conveyed an impression, which we are certain was not the case, that the Government of the day were engaged in a dishonourable conspiracy to entrap the Nationalist Members, and show them guilty of offences in which they had no part.
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