DISCRETION IN WAR

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 September 1941, Page 6

DISCRETION IN WAR

DEMANDS FOR INFORMATION. DANGERS OF APPRISING “JERRY.” Parliament is a great and beneficent institution and if it were to be extinguished we should have lost the war without any more fighting of battles (a British commentator observes). But with some people the habit of demanding that it should be told everything which concerns the conduct of the war begins to look rather like the Demon Drink; it grows with indulgence. Take this passage from a recent leading article on the change of command in the Middle East: The Prime Minister should set minds at rest at once by a full statement in Parliament. A change of this importance, made no doubt for the best of good reasons, should be fully explained to the British people and their friends abroad who have been taken by surprise. And what about Jerry, who also betrays from time to time some slight and even embarrassing interest in our movements in the Middle East? Is Jerry, like a perfect gentleman, to avert his inquiring gaze while the British Prime Minister clearly and fully discloses to the Grandmother of Parliaments exactly what reasons led up to the readjustments in the Middle East, a type of information which could hardly avoid throwing some light on our next moves, or absence of moves, in that vicinity? It would be much simpler, and it would certainly save the German High Command both time and trouble, to by-pass Parliament altogether and send Jerry a private note telling him exactly what we were up to. Dr Goebbels, at any rate, would be most obliged.