26 SEPTEMBER 1941, Page 4

Capt. Margesson's article in the Star on invasion, which The

Times deprecated and the Sunday Times defended, no doubt falls within the provision that a Cabinet Minister may make a statement for publication, to one paper or many, regarding the immediate work of his department, or alternately may write on something totally disconnected with current politics. Lord Beaverbrook, for example, might, I presume, discuss in his own or any other publication the habits of marsupials. But on the whole the rule that Cabinet Ministers should avoid writ- ing signed articles while in office- is a good one, and the fewer the exceptions to it the better. Unless it is maintained the competition between papers to secure articles which just fall within the four corners of what is permissible will fairly soon • result in the publication of something, that does not. * *