ese firms, thus
encouraging the nations of the world to provide themselves with means of
destruction.

Now, just as no sensible man will say that Governments do not often oppress
the people under their care, so no sensible man will contend that Foreign
Offices do not sometimes sin in the same way. But let us try to give an
accurate picture of the work on which the British Foreign Office spends its
time.

The organisation of the Foreign Office consists of:

(1) An office, situated in Downing Street, manned by a number of clerks,
under the direction of the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.

(2) The Diplomatic Service--that is to say, from three to eight officials
residing in the capital of each foreign country. In the more important
countries these officials are called an Embassy, and are under the
direction of an Ambassador; in the smaller countries they are called a
Legation, and are under the direction of a Minister. These Ambassadors and
Ministers receive instructions from and report to the Secretary of State
for Foreign Affairs, and are the mouthpiece of the British Government in
all business which Great Britain transacts with foreign countries.

(3) The Consular Service--that is to say, a large number of officials,
called Consuls, distributed over all the towns of the world where British
subjects have important trade connections or where there are a considerable
number of British subjects. These Consuls are under the direction of the
Foreign Office and of the Embassy or Legation in the country where they
reside, and their business is to assist British trade and protect British
subjects.

Sec.2. _The Work of the Foreign Office._--The work of this whole organisation
may be divided into four classes:

(1) The protection of individual British subjects. This protection often
extends to the most petty matters. Through the offices of a Consul and
of an Embassy or Legation flows day by day a continual stream of British
subjects who are in small difficulties or have small grievances against the
officials of the country. One old lady has lost her luggage; a working man
is stranded without work and wants to get back to England; a commercial
traveller has got into trouble with the customs officials and asks for
redress. But the protection thus given is often concerned with very
important matters, and is constantly employed on behalf of the poorest and
the most helpless. For instance, our officials in the United S