The well-informed writer who carries on the " Atticus "
tradi- tion in the Sunday Times raises rather an important issue in con- nection with the appointment of Sir Arthur Street to the Vice- Chairmanship of the National Coal Board. Nothing, as I said last week, could be better than the appointment itself ; a first-class man has gone to a post where a first-class man is indispensable. But " Atticus's " suggestion that anything like a habit of appointing civil servants to more lucrative posts in the Government's gift would be most undesirable cannot be dismissed. A Labour Govern- ment has embarked on an extensive nationalisation campaign. It will need able men to administer its nationalised enterprises. It may be tempted to seek them in the civil service ; it may be tempted to prefer those civil servants who share its political views ; some civil servants may be tempted to demonstrate that they do share those views. So runs the argument. I do not think the danger is serious, but it is as well that attention should be called to its existence.
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