23 DECEMBER 1916, Page 2

We are very glad to record the decision of the

Government to create an- Air Ministry, for we are certain that the Air Eervioe is too big a thing to be attached- permanently .to any other Depart- ment. To each element—the sea, the land, the air—its own admin- istration, is a round rule. Sir George Cave' moved the new clause creating the- Ministry in the New Ministries and Secretaries Bill in the House of Commons on Tuesday. The new Ministry will be in name the Air Board which has been in existence for some months, but the point is that the President of the Board' will be recognized as a Minister and. the. Board as a Ministry. Hitherto the Board, which represents the Admiralty, the War Office, and the MinTatry of Munitions, has had no statutory existence.