July 22, Rererexce has already been made in telegrams to the report of the Foreign Office Committee appointed at the close of last year to consider how (1) to foster a greater spirit of solidarity among British communities abroad; and (2) to make British ideals more generally known and appreciated by foreign nations. But the subject is well worth further consideration in the light of the full report now come to hand. The Committee was presided over by Sir Charles Eliot, now Ambassador in Tokio, it included a number of men well acquainted with the conditions of life of Britons beyond the frontiers of 'Empire and it examined witnesses with personal experience of those conditions, from China' to Uruguay and from Morocco to Persia. It is easily understood how the Committee came to be appointed. As it says: "The conditions brought about by the war naturally led British subjects to combine together, and to ce-operate in the task of defeating enemy influence and enemy trade.' Such combination should not be allowed to wither away on the removal of that external! danger which achieved it.. Yet how to retain it is a problem of much delicacy. We are, perhaps, still a little in danger of overrating German systems just as we did before the war. There is no doubt that all Germans were very thoypughly organized in August, 1914, while Britons were not organized at all. Similerly, Germany had for years previously been carrying on the most elaborate national—propaganda while Britain did not know the meaning of the word. Some of us, perhaps begin to wish that we never had, while others begin to doubt how far organization can be pushed withovt degenerating into bureau-
To these perils the Committee is keenly alive. It emphasizes "the distinctive individualism of the British, their independence and dislike of State interference or control": and it concludes that while Consuls should have a complete register of all British subjects in their district, there must be no attempt to enforce registration. (This of course does not apply to countries like China where exterritoriality pre-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.