21 MAY 1948, Page 4

It would not be going too far to say that

General Gordon is more in the public eye today than he was during most of his lifetime. The future of his statue is being discussed daily in the papers and the Ministry of Works—which is showing itself unduly fertile in objections to every site suggested—has the matter under what is termed in Parliamentary answers " active consideration." A number of people, I gather, feel it would be appropriate to put the statue in Gordon Square. That, I think, would be a mistake. It would inculcate false history, for Gordon Square was built before the General was born and was called after a member of the family of the Duke of Gordon, with which he had no connection. There is little fear now of the statue going out of London, but it is to be hoped that it will be kept as near as possible to its old home in Trafalgar Square. Half a dozen good sites are available within a few hundred yards of that.