THE INSOLENCE OF OFFICE
SIR,--I was glad to read your outspoken comments on the Whitchcad case.
I have not studied all the details of this particular case, but am all too familiar with the distressing habit of officialdom of smearing and denigrating an innocent person in order to distract attention from their own shortcomings. Nowhere was this vicious practice more evident than in the Crichel Down case.
Exhibitions like this of Ministers and Junior Ministers whitewashing the permanent staff and en- deavouring to defend the indefensible in my opinion are doing the Government more harm than half a dozen Rent Acts. Is it too much to hope for Ministers who are masters in their own ministries or Parliamentary Secretaries who will occasionally be human enough to admit that a mistake has been
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