11 JUNE 1948, Page 5

Will (now Lord) Henderson, the elder of the late Arthur

Hender- son's two sons, who becomes a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign Office, has so far been less in the public eye than his younger brother Arthur. While Will stuck to Labour head- quarters, which his father, as secretary of the party, did so much to make the power it became, Arthur went to Cambridge and then to the Bar, took silk, and in the present Government has been Under- Secretary for India and is now Secretary of State for Air. Though he has frequently acted as Government spokesman in the House of Lords, Lord Henderson is still something of an unknown quantity politically. Under his quiet manner there may well be reserves of ability. There is an unsatisfactory vagueness about the official reference to his future functions. If he is to follow Lord Pakenham in responsibility for Germany he will have a high standard to live up to. But there are disquieting indications that Germany is to be nobody's job in particular. There could be no worse moment for leaving Germany to nobody in particular. * *