15 JANUARY 1954, Page 14

SIR,—In my letter to you I stated that no civil

servant could be appointed a Trustee of one of the National Collections. This was based on the fact that a most valuable Trustee of one of them was forced to retire in 1950 on becoming a civil servant. But 1 see from Whitaker that the Chairman of the Tate Board has in fact once again become a civil servant since his appointment as Trustee. Surely the old rule was better, for we should not then have placed a civil servant in the surely un- precedented situation of having to explain in the Press what had escaped the attention of a Lord Chancellor ?—Yours faithfully,

ELLIS WATERHOUSE

43 Calthorpe Road, Birmingham, 15