No one looks to the Prime Minister for lucidity, but
obscurity at its murkiest marked Mr. MacDonald's replies to questions on Monday about the rule—or honour. able custom—precluding Cabinet Ministers (not appar- ently junior Ministers) from writing articles for the Press. Only some articles, it would appear, are barred— not all articles ; an article such as would be written by a journalist for pay is vetoed ; but the question of pay is not the criterion ; it is only " one of the tests, not the crucial one." For a Cabinet Minister to explain general policy on the work of his department in gratuitous articles in " limited propaganda sheets " is quite legiti- mate. So at the cost of sailing under that rather equivocal flag the Prime Minister's News Sheet will no doubt still be able to draw on the services of His Majesty's Ministers, so many of whom have displayed their literary talents in its columns.
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