THE WHITEHALL FRONT
DR. ADDISON has always been regarded as a philosophic Radical of the gentle school, but in this apologia and record of his War experience he is out to split heads rather than hairs. Perhaps this is why he has pitched upon Lord Carson to be his book's sponsor ; but even that man of battles is responsiVe to these piping times and, in a blameless introduc- tion, splits nothing more serious than an infinitive. Not that the good doctor's judgments are unsound. He moved in high places, and, although he was never one of those who
inoulded events during the War, he had some opportunity of a close-up view of men and affairs. Lord Kitchener, among others, loses his halo, but is not more severely handled in this than in other histories of the War. We are told the Ltory of Kitchener's innocent ignorance of the religious needs of the citizen army.
"Kitchener knew nothing about the different sects and could not see why one chaplain would not do for the lot. However, after L. G. had carried his point, according to his description, Kitchener brought out a sheet of paper to take the names down. The first was Methodists (which he insisted on L. 0. spelling for him). . . . The story went round, though I have no doubt it was a fabrication, that afterwards in the War Office a memo, was found on Kitchener's table to the effect that provision had to be made for the Baptist Jews' 1" Most of the big armament firms and many of the business men get it hot (the politician's fair revenge, if he is literate and can write a book, whereas they are not and cannot). Dr. Addison takes the Lloyd George view of Mr. Asquith as a War Premier and, as the scene winds on, he inclines to the Asquith view of Mr. Lloyd George. We are, however, spared the poignancies of the post-War period when Dr. Addison first was, and then was not, Minister of Health.
Three-quarters of this book and most of the appendices Are devoted to the Ministry of Munitions where the author was Under-Secretary for eighteen months and then Minister for the Six months ending July, 1917. Clearly, he feels it was the heyday of his career, and he shows an artless vanity of the achievements of that astonishing institution, as if he alone had created and ruled it during the whole period. "It was a glorious job," he says, as, full of zest, he opens the story. The pedigree of the Ministry (before Dr. Addison came on the scene) may be described as "By the Board of Trade, out of the War Office." And what a struggle it was ! The big armament firms, shell makers in particular, took the line that it was their War anyhow, and they weren't going to allow other engineering firms to come into the business as direct contractors with the Ordnance Department of the War Office. General Iron Donop, who was Master-General of the Ordnance, backed up the armament firms and for six months Kitchener backed up the Master-General. But the Board of Trade was in touch with the whole industry of the country, and knew that hundreds of engineering and motor firms, possessing plant at that time unrivalled in the world, were confident of their ability to make shells and fuses. The Board sympathized ; but it needed some courage to tackle the War Office in those days. Eventually Sir H. Llewellyn Smith and Sir William Beveridge forced the matter on the Cabinet and in six weeks Mr. Lloyd George had blown the Master-General sky high. The Ministry of Munitions was born at the opening of May, 1915, and the infant grew, not gracefully, but into a Frankenstein's monster, the like of which has never been seen among the Departments. Its traces are still in Whitehall. By spending money regardless of the Treasury, by doubling the timid military estimates of shells and guns, and not least by turning some of the big armament manu- facturers into officials, the whole resourdes of the country were eventually, but not for a year or more, harnessed to the purpose of war. Dr. Addison still gloats over shell programmes and the victories scored against other departments, Trade Unions, extortionate contractors and Cabinet Ministers. Lavish, too, in his praise, he drags in the names of his fellow officials, hundreds of them, not 10 per cent, of whom are or were known to the public. But he does not refer to the seamy side of the Ministry, the intrigues and the cynical waste of time or money. He remembers the grinding toils,
but he does not remember the grinding of axes. Yet the output of that weapon in the Ministry was substantial.
Perhaps it was inevitable ; we shall never know. Anyhow, it is all over now. The K.B.E.'s and the peerages have been distributed and we can turn with relief to more constructive courses. We believe that, at heart, Dr. Addison shares that relief, but no one would think so from reading his book.
JANUS.
Previous page
