22 MAY 1941, Page 3

To all this it may be objected that only those

in charge know all the facts, that war demands swift and secret decisions, that partial criticism can never be more than a post-mortem, that " questions " and the fear of questions impede the initiative of departments and slow up the whole machinery of Government. To accept such a philosophy is tantamount to abdication of the democratic process ; but what is much more important, nobody has yet discovered a satisfactory alternative process for sifting public opinion, testing the effects of policies on people, and organising ordered and disciplined resistance.