military authorities do not object to having a little healthful, invigorating criticism, so long as it is fair and honest. But surely those who criticize ought to remember that in times of war these difficult questions must be decided by those who have the best means of forming a judgment. The responsibility is theirs, and they must answer for what they do. Do you think it likely that Lord Kitchener—[cheers]—who is not the Minister of a party but the Minister of a nation, and who has as great an interest as any one in encouraging recruiting, would allow a single fact to be withdrawn from the public if it were not that reasons of strategy made it necessary so to do? I think we should remember that. If anybody says, "I don't like the Press Censorship; they manage it better in Germany"—[laughter]—I say I agree with them. So they do. They are used to it. [Laughter.] They have in Germany a censorship far more strict and absolute than we have any experience of.
We have grown up under the great tradition of a free and unfettered Press that has had liberty to publish whatever it likes, whenever it likes, and wherever it likes, without asking anybody's leave, and subject to no restraint of its activities except a sense of responsibility and the law of libel. [Laughter.] I think that is much the best way, and when we get back to times of peace we shall return to that good practice as one of the first things that we do. In the meantime we must remember that in war-time these doctrines have to give way and give first place to military and naval considerations. For the rest, I am not at all sorry that the British people do not like the Press Censorship. I hope they never will. It is a good and healthy sign that they should dislike it. We have only adopted it for strategic and military reasons. Let us remember that those who are discharging the Press Censorship have undertaken a most unpleasant duty. There they are in the trenches, day and night, without ever getting any rest, working under the greatest pressure, and they are being shot at by friend and foe from every point of the compass. They cannot explain—it would not be in the public interest that they should explain—what is the precise reason why they apply this rule or that, and I think they are entitled to appeal to the British people and the British Press to endure this inconvenience as we are enduring many greater inconveniences, and to determine that this is only one of the small sacrifices we have to make in carrying this war through to a successful conclusion.
