We hope that not only the Secretary of State for
War but every Cabinet Minister will read Mr. Winston Churchill's admirable speech at Leicester on Wednesday. We do not agree with all the details of what he says, but with the general tone and intention of his speech we are in the heartiest and most complete accord. His main contention is that the Government must bear the responsibility for the way in which war is conducted, and that they cannot shuffle off that responsibility by saying that they have appointed the best expert they could find and have given him a free hand. [It is no good when the watch will not go because butter was put into the works to declare, with the Mad Hatter, that "it was the best butter."] They must look to results, and not talk as if military policy were too intricate a thing for them to touch. As Mr. Winston Churchill says, it is an entire delusion to suppose that civilian control necessarily produces blunders. The blunders far more often come from the generals. Mr. Lincoln, we may remark, began with just the Government feeling about the experts, and about it being his business merely to supply them with all they asked for. He found out his mistake, and realised that it was quite as necessary to supply his generals with a sound military policy as with guns and ammunition and soldiers. This does not, of course, mean that civilians are necessarily cleverer than soldiers, but that those who are responsible must supply the ultimate military policy.
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