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Aviation History
1917
1917 - 0172.PDF
FEBRUARY 22, 1917. not at all mind paying what is necessary to win the war, there is a very natural objection to seeing good money poured down the sewers by official ineptitude. The public realises that when great organisations have to be created out of nothing there must be some waste, and it would be content with fifteen shillings- worth for its sovereign. When it is doubtful if it is getting half-a-crown's worth of value for that sovereign, then it is little wonder that the spirit of restiveness is abroad. An A much more serious aspect of theAppalling ma-tter than that of the mere cost is the incubus, creation of a solid wall of vested interest in bureaucracy. At the present rate of progress we shall find before long that the nation is confronted by a Hydra-headed monster of officialism that will, unless we are very careful, suck the very life-blood out of the country. It is all very well for Lord Curzon to tell us that all appointments to the new departments are now being made on a purely temporary basis. We know all about these temporary officials, and we know that once a thing is established it requires a tremendous leverage to move it. More- over, where you have an army of temporary officials, you also have a large number of permanent staff to control them. It follows, as night follows day, that when the temporary people are sent about their business, there is no longer a job for the permanent holders of preferment. Therefore, is it not logical to suppose that the latter will be briefed in the cause of the former, and that they will fight tooth and nail each for the preservation of his own department ? Of course it is, and that is where the trouble will arise after the conclusion of the war. All these new de- partments have been created literally with a stroke of the pen. He who imagines that they will dis- appear as easily is in for the disappointment of his life. We shall find, unless the non-official part of the people takes a very decided stand in the matter, that we shall be saddled with an appalling incubus of officialism, to which the Prussian bureaucracy is a circumstance. This may, perhaps, be regarded as extreme lan- guage. It must be remembered that a bureaucrat is 'a bureaucrat, whether he be British, Prussian or any- thing else. Scratch him and you find a despot—and a despot of the worst kind. We have only to regard what is going on all around us now to be able to realise the literal truth of the assertion. Let us take, for example, the treatment that is being accorded to the Constitutional Club at the present time. The Club was turned out of its home, practically at a moment's notice. It raised no objection. On the contrary its action, both in the letter and the spirit, was exactly what we might have expected of a body of men who put the interests of King and country first and everything else nowhere. It found a home at the Hotel Cecil and occupied quarters that, to put it mildly, were very much restricted in comparison with its own accommodation. For a time all went well, but at last the Air Board discovered that it wanted more room for expansion, and the Cecil was com- mandeered for its purposes. Now, there are more than 700 rooms in the Cecil, and of these the Club occupied about a dozen plus 30 bedrooms or thereabouts. The odd 670 are not enough for the housing of the army of officers and officials which the Air Board has gathered about itself, so the Club looks like being faced again with a cold hard world! It may be necessary for the purposes of the war that these 30 bedrooms should be taken away from the Club. On the merits of the particular case we are not passing judgment. But the point is that it is possible, under the now existing state of things, for the individual or the community to be literally thrown out into the street on the word of some major or minor bureaucrat. And there is, apparently, neither appeal from the decision nor redress after its execution, except as " an act of grace ! " That is really where the shoe pinches. There is a remedy for every species of despotism but the bureaucratic. Once that particular kind of despotism is definitely in the ascendant, then good- bye to every species of liberty, public and personal. The Speaking at a War Loan meeting atPoliticians Bedford the other d.ay. Dr- Addison, Again ? the Minister of Munitions, took occasion to remark upon certain criticisms passed in the House of Commons recently because the Prime Minister was not in his place to answer questions addressed to him across the floor of the House. Mr. Lloyd George was, he explained, at that moment engaged in dealing with questions for combating the' submarine menace. " What the country expects," said Dr. Addison, " is that every effort shall be devoted to getting on with the war. There is no man in this country who is working harder for the development of our resources in combating the Germans than the Prime Minister. We have a right, I think, to expect that those in responsible positions shall spare no efforts in the work of their several departments, and we are entitled to say that so long as they are trying to get on with their business we will not see their efforts undermined by ignorant or foolish criticism. I was seriously informed the other day that we were being governed by a sort of dictatorship. Well, there never was more unmitigated nonsense spoken in this world. As a matter of fact, the War Cabinet has met nearly every day since the new Government was instituted, commonly mornings and afternoons. All those con- cerned with the business in hand are there." We are entirely at one with the Minister of Muni- tions in this. The country has given the present Government carte blanche to get on with the war, and in return for the trust imposed the country expects that the Government will get on with it. Being as a child in politics, we may be quite wrong in the assumption, but it does seem to us that a responsible Minister of the Crown is better employed in the solution with his colleagues of vital problems con- cerning the war than by lolling on the Treasury Bench, waiting to answer questions of the parish pump variety. Unfortunately there are not wanting signs that the politicians are getting ready to recom- mence the old party game of trying to embarrass the Government. There is even talk of a General Election in the air. That would be a calamity at the present time, but it can hardly be supposed that a Government engaged on the business of a great war can allow itself to be indefinitely embarrassed by the pin-pricks of a minority of political wire-pullers. A General Election, with all its drawbacks, would be preferable to such an intolerable state of affairs as is foreshadowed by some of those who claim to be in touch with what is going on behind the scenes. It would, at least, have the effect of clearing the air and 172
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