There was an interesting article on the future of the
Ministry of Information in last Sunday's Observer, but as it was shrouded in the anonymity which that admirable journal cultivates so assiduously it is impossible to tell whether it was by someone connected with the Ministry or not. Having carefully considered the arguments adduced for the Ministry's continuance, I am more than ever convinced of the desirability of its discontinuance. It would be a long business to give all the reasons for that conclusion, but the one which weighs with me most is that it would be quite impossible for an institution existing to explain and popularise Government policy at home not to be in effect an organ of party propaganda. It was perfectly legiti- mate to spend taxpayers' money (even if not quite so much of it) on education or propaganda—whichever you like to call it—under an all-party National Government. It would be completely illegitimate to do that under a party Government, whether Labour or Conserva- tive, since a great deal of the Government's policy would be distaste- ful to the Opposition, and might have been vigorously criticised by it. Machinery for putting the British point of view before foreign countries may well be worth preserving, preferably under the Foreign Office. But personally I hope the Ministry in its present form is doomed. Then the University of London will get back its head- quarters, and it is very important that it should. (Since writing this I see that the American Office of War Information is closing down.) * * * *
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