On June 13th, when defending the Secretariat in the House
of Commons, Mr. Lloyd George said that it was a means of transmitting Cabinet decisions. But he went on to complain that the bulk of the attack had been on the ground that the Secretariat was a machine to enable the Prime Minister to get control of foreign policy. He then added, "There never was a more futile suggestion." Whether Mr. Lloyd George would or would not have succeeded in getting control of foreign policy without the Secretariat we cannot say, but it is certain that he did get control and that he has used the Secretariat as his weapon. The manifesto was the outcome of a Cabinet meeting at which the Secretary for Foreign Affairs was not present. Mr. Swift MacNeill concludes with the words : "the unfortunate foreign policy manifesto, with the Foreign Office out of the picture, ought to be the death-warrant of the Cabinet Secre- tariat." We hope that it will be. The recent reassertion of themselves by the Foreign Office and the Diplomatic Service is an excellent sign. The disappearance of Mr. Lloyd George and that of the Secretariat ought to coincide.
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