THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES MONDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1915. THE WAR COUNCIL.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16541, 15 November 1915, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES MONDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1915. THE WAR COUNCIL.

The resignation of Mr Winston Churchill from the Imperial Cabinet is one of those dramatic steps to which a Churchill has always been disposed. The news will be received by the British public with mixed feelings. Mr Churchill has his enemies. Every man of the temperament which among his Cabinet colleagues he has been conspicuous for possessing may count upon incurring his share, or more, of criticism. If Mr Churchill had achieved, as he perhaps came near doing, a spectacular success as First Lord of the Admiralty, he would have become, a popular idol. The Antwerp expedition proved unfortunately an illstarred enterprise which exposed its originator to the jeers of those who made the most of it as a piece of theatrical bungling. In relation to the inauguration of the attack on the Dardanelles Mr Churchill has also incurred severe criticism-in certain quarters —criticism which there is some reason to hope may be proved to be unwarranted and undeserved. However that may be, it must be acknowledged that events have tended to make Mr Churchill's merits as a director of the national destinies at a most critical time a subject of somewhat divided opinion. It could certainly not be said of him at the present time that he possesses the entire confidence of the nation. Doubtless this fact must be considered when his claims to inclusion in the newly appointed War Council are examined. It is because he has not been chosen as one of the five members of the Cabinet who constitute that Council that Mr Churchill has elected to leave the Cabinet altogether. Apparently he is hurt and disappointed at being passed over. But a glance at the composition of the War Council does not suggest that he has really any serious ground of complaint. That the Council should include Mr Asquith—at present filling the position of Secretary for War—Mr Balfour, First Lord of the Admiralty; Mr Lloyd George, Minister of Munitions; and Mr M'Kenna, Chancellor of the Exchequer, was to be expected. The inclusion of Mr Bonar Law as the fifth member is presumably due to the fact that he was Leader of the Opposition prior to the formation of the Coalition Cabinet. The most notable omission from the War Council—apart from Lord Kitchener, who is at present absent from England—is not Mr Winston Churchill but Sir Edward Grey,

Minister fpr Foreign Affairs. If Sir Edward Grey could quietly stand aside from a committee responsible for the control and direction of the war, it might be thought that Mr Churchill should have swallowed without protest any resentment he felt at being passed over. The fact that as Chancellor for the Duchy of Lancaster he was occupying at the time of his resignation little more than a nominal position in the Cabinet; has probably had a good deal to do with his decision. He had evidently retained this post in tho hope that as a member of the War Council he would shortly be given sufficient scope for his activities, and, that hope not being realised, he has lost no time in abandoning a position that will have been distasteful to him as no better than a sinecure. In the creation of the War Council, although that body is responsible to the Cabinet with which the general responsibility for the conduct of the war still remains, Mr Churchill has apparently seen his personal opportunities as a member of the Government shrink to a minimum. His resignation is, however, an action that is characteristic of him. His regiment is in France, and he has announced that he is entirely at the disposal of the War Office as an officer. That he should be declaring his preference for the excitements of active service as compared with the stagnations of the chancellorship of the Duchy of Lancaster can surprise nobody. His retirement from the Cabinet must, however, excite a feeling of regret on the part of a large section of the nation. He has been an admired and picturesque figure in British administrative statesmanship, and, if he has made mistakes, he has also rendered the country important services, for it must be generally recognised that the preparedness of the navy when war broke out v/as due in a large measure to the restless energy of the youngest man who was ever First Lord of the Admiralty. The Daily Chronicle doubtless sums up soundly the attitudes of Mr Churchill when it describes him as impulsive and headstrong, but possessing grand qualities of vigour, decision, and courage. We may suspect that these qualities will still refuse to be obscured. \