6 SEPTEMBER 1919, Page 3

It is seldom right to consider a mans, bad critic

simply because he is a bad author, but if this principle were ever to be applied, it might be applied with some curious results to Lord Rothermere himself. The result of Lord Rothermere's brief term of office as Air Minister was that the whole Air Service was temporarily thrown into despair by the resignation or removal—possibly the two things were indistinguishable—of General Trenohard. And we have never heard that the Air Ministry during Lord Rothermere's administration was saved from excessive expend- iture, though he now accuses Ministers of " aimlessly floundering in an ocean of debt, never making an effort to get things right."