17 FEBRUARY 1956, Page 7

IN Disenchantment C.E. Montague described the odd process by which

military leaders, gain and keep their reputations: Haig's, for example—'Wherever he was, nameless waves of some sort rippled out through an uncharted ether, convexing some virtue exhaled by that winning incarnation of honour, courage, and kindness'. The feeling is rarely logical, and some- times erratic, but it usually has some deep-rooted justification. No man inspired it more extensively or more deservedly among his subordinates than Lord Trenchard. Even during the last war, years after he had ceased to be Chief of Air Staff, his name still held so much of its former hold that when he visited RAF stations he aroused far more affectionate awe than any serving RAF chief.