As to Mr. Lloyd George's demand for the publication of
the Cabinet minutes of the discussions on the American debt in 1922, the origin of this business is the scurrilous attacks upon Mr. Baldwin, who has been made the scapegoat of the Bonar Law Government which approved the settlement of 1928. These attacks induced Sir Robert Home to give his version of what was contemplated by the Government of 1922; and Mr. Lloyd George, who is remarkably sensitive about the record of his Coalition Government, resented the suggestion that it would have made no better settlement. There are many regrettable features of this incident. The first is that Mr. Lloyd George should exhaust himself in the pursuit of trivialities. The second is that any Cabinet has ever kept any minutes of its meetings beyond a record of its decisions. The third is that Mr. Lloyd George should have asked for the publication of a document which he must know cannot be published in its entirety. The last is that anybody should have forgotten that the only important thing is what is to be done in 1988, not what was done in 1928. Fortunately tha Lords' debate on Wednesday must end the argument.
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