13 MARCH 1959, Page 8

WE ALL KNOW by now that Mr. Macmillan is fond

of wearing his Old Etonian tie, even in the presence of old boys of the Moscow Industrial Academy like Mr. Khrushchev. But I did not realise until I read an article by the Chief Euro- pean Correspondent of Newsweek ,'who has known, interviewed, and talked intimately- with the Prime Minister' that Mr. Macmillan in private carried his admiration of his old school to some- what extravagant lengths. According to the American magazine, he 'looks deliberately effete. He walks into the study of No. 10 Downing Street in a short black Eton jacket. . . I hope Mr. Macmillan does not allow this odd form of fancy dress for a grown man to influence his .behaviour to his colleagues. Otherwise we shall soon be hearing heartrending tales of how Mr. Selwyn Lloyd is obliged to sweep out the study, how Sir Edward Boyle is bullied into handing over his weekly tuck basket, how Mr. Ian Macleod is forced to toast kippers on the gas fire. And how the whole lot are caned regularly for any idleness in their fagging.