Evening Post FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1915. CONDUCT OF THE WAR AND CONSCRIPTION

Evening Post, Volume XC, Issue 110, 5 November 1915, Page 6

Evening Post FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1915. CONDUCT OF THE WAR AND CONSCRIPTION

In reply to the weighty complaints made in the House of Lords last, week against the unwieldy size of the National Cabinet, Lord Curzon^ announced that the formation of a smaller Cabinet was under consideration by the Prime Minister. As we pointed out in our review of that debate, the size of the' present Cabinet was dictated by a regard for representative rather than executive efficiency. In the words of The Times, "it was a Cabinet primarily designed, we are afraid, to keep the political peace at home and not to wage the war abroad." It has indeed been a queer case of sacrificing the end to the means. In order to carry on the war efficiently a political peace has been declared at home, and in order to make the peace secure a political arrangement has been made which is incompatible with the efficient conduct of the war. Mr. Asquith has decided to adopt the "remedy which it was jwlumi to expect, Uw!< he

would adopt, since it represents the line of least resistance. A reduction of the size of the Cabinet would have involved a severer wrench than keeping it within reasonable limits in the first instance. The heroic course mentioned by Lord Curzon as under consideration has accordingly been rejected in favour of the easier method of an inner Cabinet to take the conduct of the war under its special care. The proposed composition of this new body i s of a kind to command the full conHdence of- the Empire. It will consist of five inembers-the maximum number declared by Mr. Asquith. to be compatible with efficiency— and these five are to be Mr. Asquith himself, Lord Kitchener, Mr. Lloyd George, Sir Edward Grey, and .Air. Balfour. We do not see how or either an ex-officio or a personal basis the selection could have been bettered. The Prime Minister, the Secretary for War, the First Lord of the Admiralty, the Minister for Munitions, and the Foreign Minister are both personally and officially the best representatives possible. The attempt to manage the greatest war in history by a Cabinet of twenty-two members meeting twice a week will surely be regarded by posterity as a marvellous example of the national genius for military muddling. The committees to which various functions have been delegated have in some respects mitigated the muddle, but the overlapping of their functions has also tended' in the opposite direction. As the military correspondent of The Times has recently pointed out, Chatham, when he carried on the most successful war in English history, was virtually a Cabinet of one.

In the present war Germany enjoys the advantage of the Chatham method, but Mr. Asquith's War Council of five, with full control of everything but the larger issues of policy, should greatly reduce Britain's handicap. Another point on which the Government has been pressed to take a leaf out of Germany's book was touched upon inconclusively in Mr. Asquith's great speech. Nobody expected that he would commit the Government to conscription. To do so would indeed have been more inopportune just now than at any time during its existence. The country is now engaged in a strenuous rally on behalf of the voluutary system. Lord Derby, who is himself a conscriptionist, is leading this campaign with admirable public spirit, energy, and organising power. The result has been to give a great stimulus to recruiting, and it is^possible that the success may be such as not only to satisfy Lord Kitchener's present demands but even to provide him with all the men he is likely to need for months ahead. If Lord Derby's great effort . fails, the Government will have to face the alternative of conscription, and to face it promptly. Meanwhile, Mr. Asquith goes just as far as it is proper for him to go when he urges "not that they should rule out compulsion as an impossible expedient, but that compulsion ought only to be resorted to with something approaching general consent." The menace to national unity which Mr. Asquith mentions, as his chief objection to conscription has indeed been a serious one. "Conscription conspiracy" has been a favourite phrase in the newspapers on the one side, while those or) the other have not hesitated to denounce the supporters of the present system as "proGermans." Nothing but mischief can be done by advocacy of this kind. The fury, with which the issue has beer fought is indeed difficult for us to realisj at this distance. But, in spite of all tr\e fierce talk, we cannot- suppose that the ferocity will continue if it is once proved that conscription is the only way to win the war.