In the House of Lords on Tuesday also the Duke
of Bedford raised a not very satisfactory debate on the War Office Reconstitution Committee. Though we do not agree with all the Duke of Bedford's criticisms, the tone of his con- cluding remarks was excellent. "Until the Army is made popular with the friends and relations of soldiers—and it is not so now—you stand a chance of having created a brilliant and elaborate military administration for the purpose of adminis- tering a numerically insignificant Army." That is sound sense. Lord Donoughmore, who replied for the Government, could hardly do more than mark time, owing to the fact that the proposals of the Government in regard to Army reform are still undecided on. He insisted, however, that the responsi-
bility of the Secretary of State was not weakened under the new scheme. Lord Lansdowne, who concluded the debate, defended—and, as we think, wisely—the scheme under which the Prime Minister presides over the Council of Defence.
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