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Show A PARALLEL FOR OUR MISCHIEF-MAKERS. 1 '(. England is afflicted with the same kind of vicious criticism, directed at ' those in authority, as is the United States. In a recent issue of the Lon-1 j don Observer, an entire page is devot- Kj ed to show how inconsistent and de-! structie are (he nagging comments on , the war and Lloyd-George which come j I from Colonel Repington, at one time ! ! recognized as England's foremost ( military writer, but who of late has ; become a common scold, with no clear ideas of his own to offer to the nation. The Observer, by a long list of quo- I tations from the war articles of Col- one Repington. proves Repington has no deep conception of the war problems, prob-lems, and, had his advice been followed, fol-lowed, nothing less than inextricable contusion would have resulted. We are reminded by the Observer's article of more than one conceited war critic in the United States. In summing up, the London Observer Observ-er says: "We defy anone to gather from! Colonel Repington's 'Yes-No' method any coherent view of the present bat tle and prospect in Franco. At one time the Boche is said to be 'deeply chagrined by his checks, hard hit, and licking his wounds ' At another tlmp, when it suits the political argument, our army is pictured as jeapordized and almost betrayed under 'the imbeciles imbe-ciles who are trying to conduct war in London,' no comfort being found for the absence of Robertson in the leadership lead-ership of Foch ind the abhorred eminence emi-nence of Wilson. Not only Mr. Lloyd George and Lord Milner, but all British Brit-ish soldiers not pets or patrons of the claque, are reckoned among the 'imbeciles.' 'im-beciles.' "This is a system of faction In h s trlcs and intrigue in convulsions. On both sides of the Atlantic and at the front it plays the enemy's game and nothing less It does this by striving to bring the whole of our present war-administration war-administration into disrepute; by encouraging en-couraging indiscipline and distrust from top to bottom of the army; by spreading suspicion and doubt through I every class of society; by trying to ( breed dissension and rivalry between the allies, but especially between Mr. 1 Llo d George and M. Clemenceau, by misleading America as to the extent of the British military effort; and by , insulting Italy and pleading for Austria, Aus-tria, in a kept newspaper edited by a naturalized Austrian, which was conducted con-ducted at wasteful expense for no pur- pose Intelligible to us but the disor- ganization of British government and opinion. It is too much to ask that American newspapers shall cease to publish as representaf i e of British opinion the unworthy, discredited stuff which BVery sound British citizen repudiates? re-pudiates? What would America think of our loyalty and sense if any British Brit-ish newspaper were systematically to reproduce factious attacks on President Presi-dent Wilson, his colleagues, and his chosen soldiers. "The St, Quentin disaster was the direct di-rect result of the fatal dualism which sophists like Colonel Repington tried to preserve. Apart from that, the Brit ish army has never fought more magnificently mag-nificently than during the last seven v. c eks Nor was it ever In greater strength or in better heart if the wreckers will leave it alone. The prime minister and Lord Milner, with men like General Sir Henry Wil6on and General Harington, give us at last by far the most efficient and modern system sys-tem of war-direction and army management man-agement that we have had at the Brit ish war office since this struggle began. be-gan. Therr must be an end of Colonel Repington's campaign of calumny and demoralization. There must be an end of the vendetta and the claque?. There must be an end of these things for the sake of the British army, the people, and the allie. The scandal we have exposed has become a cancer of public pub-lic life in war-time We say that it must be cut right out'with an unflinch- J ing hand. We have proved that the nature of the growth is malignant. To ministers themselves the operation belongs. be-longs. If they proed incapable of the proper surgery, they would do well to give place to stronger men But the events of the last few- days justify our hope and belief that Mr. Lloyd George and Lord Milner are the men to make an end of this mutinous nuisance. There will be no health in the public service until the criminal mischief-making mischief-making we have exposed is squelched without remorse." nn |