The Fire Brigade Committee of the Durham County Council (which
has been making itself notorious in other directions) is protesting against the appointment of a man from the South of England as Chief Regional Fire Officer for Durham and two adjacent counties. This is regionalism run mad. I know nothing about the officer appointed, but it is to be pre- sumed that he was chosen because he was considered the 'best man for the job. If that sound principle is to be abandoned we may look forward to bigger and better fires. In the case of Scotland and Wales national sentiment may make it expedient in some cases to appoint an efficient man from those particular regions, rather than a more efficient one from else- where, but it is a new idea, and not an attractive one, to have a Korean frontier drawn along the Wharfe or the Trent.
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