A Civil Servant's Lapse The dismissal by the Prime Minister
of Sir Christopher Bullock, Secretary of the Air Ministry, is one of those unhappy episodes on which there is little temptation to comment at length. The charges against Sir Chris- topher were that at a time when an important contract was under negotiation between the Government which he represented and Imperial Airways Ltd., • he raised with Sir Eric • Geddes, Chairman of Imperial Airways, the questions (a) of the inclusion of Sir Eric in a coming Honours List, and (b) his own association with the Board of Imperial Airways as Chairman in succession to Sir Eric. A Board of Inquiry consisting of three distinguished Civil Servants found the charges justified, and the Prime Minister's action followed inevitably. There the matter in its personal aspect can be allowed to rest. But the affair will leave the public increasingly disturbed on two points, the so-called " traffic in honours," and the temptation to leading Civil Servants to prepare the way for the assumption on their retirement from the service, of a post in some business firm having relations with their old department. The objections to that are obvious.
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