It is very much to the credit of all the Ministers concerned that they accepted their loss of status without a murmur, As for the public their one concern is for the efficient and successful prosecution of the war, which overshadows everything else. There is never much point in criticize ing the machinery of control so long as it works smoothly and produces the results desired.
'As to that, the wholly exceptional course which this war hes so far pursued makes criticism premature. In 1914 all was different. Then, even before a month had passed, minds were already being made up that immediate' change was imperative and that the war could not be run by a large, unwieldy Cabinet, helped by ai War Council—which was virtually the pre-war Committee of Imperial Defence—and the executives of the War Departments with their staffs and advisers.
As a matter of fact some of the most crucial decisions in the early days were taken by two or three leading Ministers, acting hurriedly on the spur of the moment, ard the Cabinet knew nothing till presented wita the accomplished facts.
Lerd Kitchener, one of the most secretive of tien, told the Cabinet just as little as possible. It is also on record that for six weeks while the fortunes of the Dardanelles expedition hung in the balance not a single meeting of the Cabinet was summoned,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.