The relegation of the Silent Column campaign to "desuetude," good-humoured
and dexterous though the Prime Minister's con- duct of that operation was, obviously puts the Minister for In- formation in a difficult position, for it was Mr. Duff Cooper himself who launched the campaign in a broadcast address in which he appealed to all his hearers to "Join with me the ranks of the Silent Column." Mr. Duff Cooper has in the last few weeks brought on himself considerable criticism, first by the ill-advised threat, since withdrawn, of a more rigorous censor- ship of the Press, and now by sponsoring the Silent C,olu campaign which the Prime Minister has very properly called o What is worse, it appears that the " despondency " prosecuti are to be laid at Mr. Duff Cooper's door and not at Sir Jo Anderson's. These things are less important in the selves than as evidences tending to confirm the grow conviction that there is very little real rapport between Ministry of Information and the average citizen for who guidance, instruction and stimulation the Ministry exists. is too much to hope for a Minister of Information who c get home to the common man as the Prime Minister would, b not too much to hope for one who would get home as, say, Mr Priestley does, or as Lord Beaverbrook almost certainly would. But I admit the right man is very hard to find.
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