If the Government do not recognize that it is essential
for them to back up their chosen military leaders, the Army will inevitably conclude that its suspicion that there is political intrigue behind the Press intrigue is well founded. We wish that Sir Edward Carson were still a member of the War Cabinet in this situation. It will be remembered that after Mr. Lloyd George's Paris speech, he gave the nation a definite pledge that if any attempt were made to drive Sir William Robertson and Sir Douglas Haig from their posts, he would not remain a member of the Cabinet. We were violently blamed by many of our correspondents when we indig- nantly condemned the Prime Minister's Paris speech, but we cannot help feeling that many of them, even if they still think that we expressed much too severe an opinion on his words, will see now that the Paris speech is the clue to what is now happening. The present Press campaign derives its justification and its inspiration from that source. Minor of the allegations of incompetence brought against Sir William Robertson and Sir Douglas Haig are almost identical in language with passages in Mr. Lloyd George's speech.
