Russia of keeping important negotiations secret inspired the
writing of this article, which appeared in The London Daily
News of April 1, 1915, and is here published by the author's
permission. Mr. Bennett points out that despite her alliance
Great Britain is essentially a democracy subject to the
mandates of her people.

The well-meant but ingenuous efforts of the Government to produce
pessimism among the citizens have failed. The object of these efforts
was clear; it has, I think, been attained by more direct and wiser
means. Munitions of war are now being more satisfactorily manufactured,
though the country still refuses to be gloomy. "Eyewitness" pretended to
quake, but Przemysl fell. He tried again, but Sir John French announced
that he did not believe in a protracted war. Since Sir John French said
also that he believed in victory, it follows that he believes in a
victory not long delayed. The incomparable and candid reports of the
French War Office about the first stages of the war increased our
confidence, and at the same time showed to us the inferiority of our own
reports. Only victors could publish such revelations, and Britain, with
her passion for forgetting mistakes and her hatred of the confessional,
could never bring herself to publish them. These reports were confirmed
and capped by the remarkable communications of General Joffre to a
journalistic friend. The New York Stock Exchange began to gamble about
the date of victory. The London Stock Exchange took on a new firmness.
Not even the sinister losses at Neuve Chapelle, nor the rumors
concerning the same, could disturb our confidence. Peace, therefore, in
the general view, and certainty in the view of those who knew most, is
decidedly nearer than when I wrote last about peace.

A short while ago Mr. Asquith referred with sarcasm and reproof to those