"From the purely British standpoint, there is no doubt that the second of these courses is to be prepared and this course I usually have followed. The British nation is unique in this respect that they are the only people who like to be told how bad things are. who like to be told the worst and who like to be told they are likely to get very much worse in the future and must prepare themselves for further Teverses.
"But when you go to other countries—oddly enough I saw a message from the authorities who are most concerned with our Arab problem at present urging that we should be more careful not to indulge in too gloomy forecasts. Arabs do not understand the British character of meeting trouble long before it comes and I think it much better to go on putting a bold face on things and then meet disaster when it arrives.
"Any statements of a po: istic character used here are calculated to discourage our friends and to spread alarm and despondency over wide regions, to affect nicely balance ed neutrals and to encourage the enemy who of course seizes upon any phrase or any gloomy allusion and repeats it a millionfold in its strident propaganda.
"It makes me feel very much that the members of Parliament have got to pick their words very carefully.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.