At the beginning of the war it was observed, in
this column and elsewhere, that some of the best brains in the country were regarded as superfluous in the hour of the country's need. Four men in particular were mentioned—Sir William Beveridge, Sir Arthur Salter, Sir Walter Layton and Mr. Keynes. The list is slowly shortening. Sir Arthur Salter has been given the second position (it should be the first) at the Ministry of Shipping, and now Sir Walter Layton is made Director-General of Programmes at the Ministry of Supply, an excellent appointment in view of Sir Walter's experience at the Ministry of Munitions in the last war. Mr. Keynes, whose health might not be equal to the strain of heavy administrative work, is perhaps more usefully employed as unchartered mentor to Chancellors of the Exchequer. But there is still a good deal of ability to all appearance lacking adequate scope, Lord Trenchard's, for example, or Mr. Frank Pick's. And there are various ex-Ministers who should be invited to do something more than vegetate.
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