One ofthe reasons why Carson resigned from the first Coalition Government of 1915 was that ordinary Cabinet Ministers were deprived of all chance to take part in shaping policy. Cabinet responsibility had become a mere pretence. Yet the tuling. clique could not~bring themselves to face the necessity of a properly constituted War Cabinet, So the war had been running none too prosperously for over two years tofore it was reluctantly conceded that a small War Cabinet was a prerequisite to a more vigorous prosecution of operations.
It was on the method of its constitution and on the powers which Mr. Asquith should possess if he remained Prime Minister that the first Coalition foundered. Mr. Lloyd George sardonically observed: "You cannot run a war successfully with a Sanhedrin,"
Then was sct up for the first time a real War Cabinet, consisting of five members, only one of whom, Mr. Bonar Law,-the Chancellor of the Exchequer, possessed Departmental duties. They met every morning, and often in the afternoon and evening as well, and after hearing reports as to the progress of the war since the preceding day they either' discussed policy or dealt with the innumerable questions demanding immediate d cision. According to the official rethe majority of the War Caband those responsible for executive action Questions of over-lan-ping or conflict between departments and the general lines of policy throughout every branch of the administration were ce-ordinated so as to form part of a consistent war policy."
The Dominion Prime Ministers This War Cabinet worked through a host of committees and stf-committees, and in 1918 was strengthened by the addition of General Smuts. The Dominion Prime Ministers also took part when they came to London for an Imperial Conference, and their presence virtually made it an Imperial Cabinet. So it would again if they once more came to London meanwhile Mr. Eden's right to attend the War Cabinet's meetings gives the Dominions an indirect representation consonant with their altered status under the Statute of Wesminister.
It is, therefore, happily possible to adapt the composition of the War Cabinet to circumstances as they arise, and one of the principal lessons taught by the experiences of the Great War, the compelling necessity for greater ce-ordination of the three Service Departments, was accepted by the creation of a Minister of Coordination who now has a place in the War Cabinet at the side of the three Service Ministers.
Whether a War Cabinet of nine er ten is too unwieldy to retain that precious unity which is more ea: achieved by a smaller body remai to be seen. But even a small We Cabinet of five would provide score for an Inner and an Outer Ring certain members were more seliassertive than others, and the exclusion of the Foreign Secretary -from the small War Cabinets of 1917-19 led to continual friction.
Mr. Chamberlain recently stigmatized as a "malicious invention" a state-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.