Lord Northcliffe published on Friday week a letter to the
Prime Minister declining his "repeated invitation that I should take charge of the new Air Ministry." He declined, he said, because, while the United States and Canada showed fervour and enthusiasm in their war preparations, " there are still in office here those who daily with such urgent questions as that of the unity of war control, the eradication of sedition, the mobilization of the whole man and woman power of the country, and the introduction of compulsory food rations." He complained also of obstruction and delay in certain Departments, and of the misuse of the Censorship. " Unless there is swift improvement in our methods here," he added, " the United States will rightly take into its own hands the entire manage- ment of a great part of the war." The American Press hastened to point out that America had no desire to do anything of the kind, and that Lord Northcliffe spoke only for himself.
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