There is no sort of doubt that the men to
whom the Commission awarded grants all thoroughly deserved the nation's gratitude, but the award of a small money grant unaccompanied by any honour seems perhaps an inadequate method of expressing national thanks. The whole sum divided between all the inventors scarcely equalled the cost of two fully equipped Tanks. There seems, too, no very clear reason why the terms of the Commission should have been so framed as to exclude men such as Mr. de Russet and the heads of the Metropolitan Carriage Company, through whose efforts an immense " speeding up " and improvement in manufacture were effected. Nor does the distinction between " servants of the Crown " and civilians seem very clear. During the war we were in a sense all conscript to the State. But in this sort of granting of awards it is of course impossible to recompense all who deserve gratitude. " For the press of knights not every brow can receive the laurel."
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