MINISTERS’ “SHADOWS”

Evening Star, Issue 20023, 14 November 1928, Page 3

MINISTERS’ “SHADOWS”

EXAGGERATED POLICE PROTECTION When Sir Ausl.cn Chamberlain left ior his health cruise we were informed by the Press —and it has not been denied —that ho was accompanied by a Scotland Yard detective. Why? (asks a correspondent of the ‘Daily Telegraph’). Neither the Prime Minister nor the Home Secretary seems able to move a hundred yards without a bodyguard drawn from the police headquarters, and Mr Winston Churchill's own particular “■watchdog " is now so much his “ familiar ” that he even accompanies him at Ihe play. Doubtless the Chancellor of the Exchequer was able to enjoy the show on a recent night all the better because ho_ knew his rear was covered by the detective in the. stall behind, him; but I could not help recollecting that 1 was a taxpayer. Seriously, is this “police protection” for Cabinet Ministers necessary? Even one grant that tbo Home Secretary stands on a different footing from the others, what earthly use would a single detective be against a madman’s sudden attack? There may have been some excuse for the praclic“ when tbo suffragettes were painting the town red, but why should it be continued to-day? One wonders whether the Ministers themselves really desire this continuous surveillance, or whether it is forced upon them by a nervous department? In cither event, while so many of the force are engaged on semaphore exhibitions in the streets, the ability which has raised their confreres to (lie corps of Ministers’ guardian angels would be belter employed in looking for burglars.