17 FEBRUARY 1961, Page 14

( • and comparing, them with the .present, we must

remember that times. have changed. , . • Courage is one of the greatest of human qualities. Field-Marshal give us a sentence like, 'I suggest that the final test of a leader is a feeling you have when you leave his presence,' and continue to think of himself as a good leader?

Less obliquely we learn other things such .ts that a good leader must have 'something o high transcends reason' (twice within a page, this). that he mistrusts politicians, that he doesn't think the British form of government is suitable for the twentieth century. All of which we seem to have heard before somewhere and accounts for the fact that the British people will never regard leaders as anything but painful necessities. Not of course, that anyone could take Field-Marshal Montgomery seriously enough for any of this tot:, be worrying. Which is a slight pity--because he has some sensible things to say about East-Wet relationships.