WHEN THE Tate Gallery Annual Report came out last year
(for the first time since 1938) a whispering campaign against the Director of the Gallery, Sir John Rothenstein, was at its height. The report itself, being a record of excellent progress, and the efforts of a few impartial journalists successfully drove back this tide of personal enmity and malice; and this year's report, which tells of another satisfactory year completed, and lists an impressive number of acquisitions, makes its appearance in an atmosphere of calm. This reminds me of the Evening Standard's remarkable conversion of August 22. Throughout the troubles at the Tate the `Londoner's Diary' ran occasional paragraphs which seemed to indicate, to say the least, a fierce hostility towards Sir John, but, lo and behold, on August 22 the diarist began to pipe a very different tune and in two fulsome Paragraphs praised Sir John to the sky. The man ended thus : `Londoners are indebted to Sir John for the courage and imag- ination he has displayed in his direction of the Tate Gallery. He has done much .to widen appreciation and understanding of twentieth-century painters in this country.'
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