1915, to have said: 'If he could grasp the strategic conceptions and explanations of those who wrote about them, the unexpected withdrawal of Russia and other misfortunes were principally chargeable to the defects of our lawyer-politicians.' Later on in the same speech he is reported (in the Morning Post) to have stated that the Russian retreat was 'occasioned solely by inferiority in munitions'. But why had Germany this superiority? Because lawyer-politicians, fixing their attention more steadily, as we are compelled to believe, on neutral friendship than on German defeat, permitted the export from this country of the materials essential for propulsive ammunition—cotton, fats, and oils. The lines on the opposite page speak for themselves, showing that from the beginning of the war up to the end of last May, while we were sending about the same quantity of cotton to France as that sent in the corresponding months of the previous years, and to Russia much less, the amounts to Sweden and Holland, the two mouths of Germany, were enormously greater. Sir F. E. Smith did not exhibit the usual astuteness of an advocate in choosing his line of defence. In the immense increase of the export to Russia, which began in June last, we probably see a result of the disastrous explosion at the great munition works.
The attitude of the Government towards science is well illustrated by the efforts that were required before this injurious policy could be reversed. We owe the final success to the patriotism of a scientific man, Sir William Ramsay, who was most unwilling to begin the campaign in the press by which alone the Government could be moved. Let those who abuse the press remember that. Sir William is a member of the Royal Society Committee to advise the Government on
