15 AUGUST 1941, Page 10

But the historian, in deducing from this similarity of effect

the theory that it is the Civil Servant who invariably decides, will be deducing a false theory. He will be forgetting that any Government Department is like an iceberg, in that only one-third of its bulk appears above the surface. Where the historian may go wrong is that he will fail to observe that it is not so much that Mr. Sid Jones and Lord Hampshire each tended to agree with Sir Charles as that Sir Charles had been careful in each case not to submit to the Secretary of State suggestions which would conflict with the latter's views, prejudices or convictions. This is not meant to suggest that the Civil Servant adjusts his sails to any breeze of Ministerial favour ; far from it ; but it is inevitable that a Government Department, while aiming always at the same harbour of public weal, should rightly be apt to steer its course according to whether the wind blows steadily from right or left.

* * * *