But criticism of inaction of the Government in regard to the enemy stands on a different footing, and, so only that it conform to one condition, it is permissible. That condition is the not unimportant one--full knowledge of all the facts. The eminent chemists and others who have been so vehemently urging the Government to make cotton contraband of war were critics of alleged inaction, and so far their position was unimpeachable; but, I venture with respect to ask them, did they know _all_ the facts? They certainly knew one fact--that, at the time they approached the Government, Germany was getting too much cotton; and realising the intimate connexion between this and the ever-growing lists of casualties they were deeply stirred, as all of us who are condemned to sit at home at ease were deeply stirred when we came to understand. But emotion is apt to cloud clear mental vision, and we have been asked by some persons to believe that those others, men like ourselves, who form the Government of the nation, having eyes yet see not the plain things that are going on before them. And yet those are the only men among us who know _all_ the facts. The critical point, however, is not whether Germany has been getting too much cotton, but whether she has been getting it because the Government had not taken sufficiently strenuous measures to prevent it. This being assumed in the affirmative, these eminent critics further assumed that declaring cotton to be contraband would be more effective in preventing it from getting to Germany than the procedure authorised by the Order in Council. _The Answer to the Critics of the Government_ None of us know what is actually happening on the high seas in the area controlled by our cruiser squadrons, though the statistics just published by the Foreign Office somewhat lift the veil. We cannot, therefore, do more than consider the abstract question of principle, whether it was necessary to supplement the Order in Council by a proclamation of contraband so as more effectually to prevent cotton getting through to Germany; and it seems to me essential to a right understanding of the discussion that we should consider it.