15 DECEMBER 1917, Page 2

One would be tempted to say that Lord Northcliffe was

mainly rerponsible for this underestimate, were it not for the curious.fact, which an American correspondent brought to our notice the other day, that Lord Northcliffe tries to have it both ways. In England he tells us that we had better invite the United States to manage our business for us, while in the United States he told the Americans, as we read in the New Republic, that he could see few sign.s of the great effort, in shipbuilding which they professed to be making. Possibly he was misreported. U not, the contradiction seems blatant