Nine Hundred and Ninety Nine General dissatisfaction with the work
of the Ministry of Information was not lessened by Sir Edward Grigg's state- ment that the total staff of the Ministry consisted of no fewer than 999 persons, of whom only 43 were journalists. The fault is not Sir Edward Grigg's, who has only just been appointed, nor can Lord Macmillan be held mainly respon- sible, since most of the members of this swollen organisation were already there when he took command. But the public will expect both of them to get quickly to work, first with the broom, and then with the appointment of men who understand the need and the nature of news, and with force enough to extract from the departments information which ought to be available for home and foreign consumption. We do not want from the Ministry amateurish leading articles or vague hints about official views. We want answers, so far as they may safely be given, to the questions which every- one is asking relating to the war, and facilities for the quick transmission of news. It is disastrous that the leading jour- nalists in countries like the United States, Holland and Sweden should have to complain that they cannot state the British case because they cannot get British news.
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