We have dealt at length elsewhere with the squabble which
has been going on throughout the week between the Daily Mail and the War Office in regard to the publication of official secrets, and will only say here that all the indications point to the matter ending in nothing, as such disputes between Ministers and the Press invariably do. Ministers are, perhaps not unnaturally, apt to be very angry at the premature publi- cation of documents marked "Confidential," even though they are not per se very important, but the opinion of the country, which looks on impartially, can, we believe, be crystallised in this sentence of direction to Ministers It is in the first place your duty to keep your own secrets, and to make your official servants do likewise. If, however, any newspaper can be shown to have corrupted public servants, and induced them to betray their trust, we will support you in inflicting the severest punishment. But you must get a good case, and prove it, and not try to make the news- papers responsible for doing your own work,— i.e., that of stopping leakages in your own Departments.' To use strong language about newspapers, and then not to take action consonant with that language, cannot be wise.
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