A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
NO one is surprised at the translation of Sir Cyril Newall from the position of Chief of the Air Staff to the Governor-Generalship of New Zealand. Needless to say, the move is no reflection on Sir Cyril. The domination the R.A.F. has achieved is the most convincing of all testimonies to the work he has done in the past three years in building up an incomparable fighting force. But strain tells, and a new man coming in to build on a predecessor's foundation can at a certain point achieve more than that predecessor himself. On that principle Haig succeeded French and Beatty Jellicoe in the last War, and in this war Sir John Dill has taken the place of Sir Edmund Ironside. In Sir Charles Portal, the new Chief of the Air Staff, the best man available has unquestionably been put in the place where his talents will have most effect. Whether there is special significance in the fact that the man who as Chief of the Bomber Command has been in charge of our hitherto limited offensive operations, moves to the first place at the moment when a much more extended offensive is becoming possible I do not pretend to know. But it is certain that Sir Charles Portal's appointment means that not merely undiminished, but even enhanced, confidence can be reposed in the great force which in these last months can fairly claim to have preserved our national existence.
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