9 APRIL 1942, Page 2

The Case of Sir Warren Fisher

The issue between Mr. Herbert Morrison, as Minister of H Security, and Sir Warren Fisher, as Special Commissioner for London Civil Defence Region, has two separate aspects. The yea of the correspondence that passed between them will ask hams Did Mr. Morrison act unjustly in his summary dismissal of Col Blatherwick? and was Sir Warren Fisher entitled to write a p letter of protest to the Marichester Guardian? Even if the an is yes to the first question, it may be no to the second. Most yea will conclude that Colonel Blatherwick, the Deputy Reg' Commissioner for the North West, was treated with excepr harshness. Admittedly it was an "error of judgement" on his to permit the use of fire vehicles for a long journey for an in: Regional football match, though official sanction had been gi‘ for the encouragement of such matches, and actually for the us, service vehicles. On the face of it, the dismissal of this o for an isolated error of judgement, after the refusal of a request a board of inquiry, might reasonably be described as harsh, even as "Prussian." But was Sir Warren Fisher, who, quite de was himself serving under Mr. Morrison, the right person launch an attack upon him in the Press? He states that he, a was for twenty years head of the Civil Service, was no long Civil Servant. But he was at least in the public service, and ta his orders from a Minister of the Crown. One may admire him taking his official life in his hand in making a vehement protest the interests of justice, but he would have been in a far stron position if he had resigned first, and then made whatever prot he chose.