A rather—or very—unsatisfactory situation has arisen regarding British lecturers in
America. For years past many such, in par- ticular men like Sir Frederick Whyte, Sir Norman Angell and Mr. S. K. Ratcliffe, have been doing invaluable service in keeping the American public (which has cultivated the lecture-habit to an extent unparalleled in this country) accurately informed regard- ing British life and thought. There was, of course, never so much need for that as in the midst of war. But there is now a strange dilemma. Official British speakers are looked askance at as propagandists, and certain unofficial speakers have committed so many indiscretions (knowing some of them I am not surprised) that neither the British nor the American authorities are disposed to facilitate the admission of any more of them. So rigid a ban is to be deplored, though the exercise of discrimination no less rigorous is necessary. Official speakers, i.e., those sponsored by
the Ministry of Information, can still enter, and it is safe to predict that a man like Dr. Julian Huxley, who is just beginning a speaking-tour, will soon wear down any initial suspicion of
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