BRITISH CABINET IN PRE-WAR DAYS

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 23, 27 July 1933, Page 11

BRITISH CABINET IN PRE-WAR DAYS

"HUSH, HUSH" AIE

Temporarily breaking off the sequence of his narrative, Mr. Ll6yd George1, in his war memoirs, gives interesting retrospective glimpses of men and events before and in the early days of the war. . ,

In the 19th instalment he discusses the astonishing conditions under which the British Cabinet functioned in relation to foreign policy in pre-war days.

(By David Lloyd George—No. 19—Copyright.)

During the eight years that preceded the war, the Cabinet devoted a ridiculously small percentage of its time to a consideration of foreign affairs. .

Of course, certain aspects of foreign policy were familiar to those Ministers who attended the Committee of Imperial Defence, but apart from that, the Cabinet as a wholo were never called infp genuine consultation upon the fundamental aspects of the foreign situation. There, was a reticence and a secrecy which practically ruled out three-fourths of tho Cabinet from the chance of making any genuine contribution to the momentous question then fermenting on tho Continent of Europe.

During the whole of those eight years, when I was a member of the Cabinet, I can recall no such review of the European situation being given to us as that which Sir Edward Grey gave to the Colonial Conference in 1907, or to the Prime Ministers of the Dominions at the- Committee of Imperial Defence in 1911. Even there the information that was withheld was more important than that which was imparted.

For instance, nothing was said about our military commitments. There was in the Cabinet an air of "hush, hush," about every allusion to our relations with France, Russia, and Germany.

Direct questions were always answered with civility, but were not encouraged. We were made to feel that, in these matters, we were i reaching out our hands towards the. mysteries, and that we were too young in the priesthood to presume to enter into the sanctuary reserved- for the elect.

Discussions, if they could be called discussions, on'foreign affairs were confined to the elder statesmen, who had seen service in some previous Ministerial existence. Apart from the Prime Minister and the' Foreign Secretary, there were only two or three men, like Lord Loreburn, tho Lord Chancellor, Lord Morley, Lord Crewe, and, for a short time, Lord Eipon, who were expected to. make any contribution on the infrequent occasions when the Continental situation was brought to our awed attention.