s who have got the country into the mess
can be hanged in a row, and a fat lot of good that will do towards
getting the country out of the mess.

But if, on the contrary, the Government merely exists for the country,
then in times of emergency it is the bounden duty of everybody, and
particularly is it the duty of those who are really competent to do
so, to help the Government and to keep it out of trouble if they can.
One feels cold inside conjuring up the spectacle of a pack of experts
who have been called in to be present at a meeting of the War Council
or the Cabinet, sitting there mute and inarticulate like cataleptics
while the members of the Government taking part in the colloquy embark
on some course that is fraught with danger to the State. _Salus populi
suprema lex_. Surely the security of the commonwealth is of infinitely
greater moment than any doctrine of responsibility of Ministers,
mortals who are here to-day and gone to-morrow. Indeed--one says it
with all respect for a distinguished representative of one of the
great British dominions overseas--it looks as though Mr. Fisher did
not quite realize the position of the expert, and assumed that if the
expert gave his advice when asked it made him responsible to the
country. The expert is present, not in an executive, but in a
consultative capacity. He decides nothing. The Ministers present
decide, following his advice, ignoring his advice, failing to ask for
his advice, or mistakenly imagining that the expert concurs with them
as he keeps silence, according to the circumstances of the case.
Naturally, the expert should try to induce the head of his department
to listen to his views on the subject before the subject ever comes
before the Cabinet or the War Council. But if the Minister takes a
contrary view, if the matter is one of importance and if the Minister
at the meeting fails to acquaint his colleagues that he is at variance
with the expert, or again if the question crops up unexpectedly and
the expert has had no opportunity of expressing an opinion, then the
duty of the expert to the country comes first and he should say his
say. It may be suggested that he ought to resign. Perhaps he ought
to--afterwards. But the matter of vital importance is not whether he
resigns, but whether he warns the Government of the danger. The
country is the first consideration, not the Government nor yet the
expert.

One great advantage of the War Cabinet system introduce