In both the Lords and the Commons on Tuesday statements
were made about the Mesopotamian campaign. Mr. Asquith refused at present to publish papers relating either to Mesopotamia or the Dardanelles, on the express advice of the Army Council. Political considerations had never overridden military expediency in Mesopotamia. As for the much-criticized medical arrangements, Sir John Nixon had reported them to be satisfactory. Unofficial 'accounts drew quite a different picture, but the Government had insisted that all deficiencies should be made good. The defects of transport were also being rapidly remedied. The critics were not by any means satisfied with Mr. Asquith's statement. But we cannot deprecate too strongly a mere washing of dirty linen at such a time as this. Yet that is what many people seem to desire. Legitimate criticism should concern itself with the sources of the evil—which we take to be the unworkable system of over-centrali- zation which has existed in India—and not with the pursuit of individuals. It is noticeable that the very persons who now con- demn the advice of the Army Council to Mr. Asquith to withhold papers at other times adjure the Government to submit themselves to the advice of their experts.
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