That a member of the War Cabinet should
attend a Conference of French and Russian Socialists at all is in
itself a sufficiently remarkable departure from Ministerial etiquette,
but that he should be accompanied by Mr. RAMSAY MACDONALD, whose
peculiar views upon the questions of war and peace have so recently
been repudiated by the Government and the House of Commons, makes
it still more extraordinary. In the circumstances it was almost
surprising to learn that the complaisance of the Government did not
extend to furnishing Mr. MACDONALD with a war-ship for his journey.
What Mr. BALFOUR, who is responsible for the foreign policy of this
country, thinks about it all one can only surmise, for he said nothing
directly on the subject in his great speech to-night--a speech which
earned him the unique tribute of a compliment from Mr. PRINGLE. But
the FOREIGN SECRETARY'S warning to the House not to try to anticipate
the work of the Peace Congress may well have been inspired by
apprehensions as to what the amateur diplomatists were saying at that
moment in Paris.
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