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Sun (Christchurch), Volume IV, Issue 1053, 27 June 1917, Page 6

It is not yet clear to some people -whether Lord Northcliffe is a substance or mainly a shadow, but his friends arc reported to be looking with grave alarm on his expedition to America. Either "they fear his fate too much" or they know that "his deserts are" — well, just a little smaller than he himself has so often announced. It was all very well to proclaim in his papers that things were not right; that they could and must be better; that he himself knew how to do it. But to show how to do it—actually to go to America and start the machine himself—this, say his friends, was ill-judged. The pen is mightier than the sword, the editor far exalted above the Government commissioner. Perhaps Lord Northcliffe would have done better to have stayed at home. And, i!' She London correspondent of the "New York Times" has the facts, other people, not exactly his loving friends, are saying the same thing. They are saying, indeed, thai the Government has committed a grave impropriety by dragging in Northcliffe at all. Not only were there other men available: Northcliffe, as the duly accredited ambassador of the Imperial Government, is an offence to Liberal England. In the circumstances, there was something almost indecent in obtruding this figure on the official stage—something definitely beyond what "win-the-war" loyalty could endure. Of course, if the modest lord's efforts are sufficiently fruitful his enemies are extinguished again; if he docs nothing—but, "wait and see." It is basely ungrateful to cavil too soon. Meanwhile, however, more and more people in England are beginning to lose sight of the tremendous gulf in initiative and capacity that is supposed to separate the new order from the old. They have air raids and destroyer raids, submarine piracy unchecked, food-muddle outrages in Ireland. The "new gang" seems perilously like the "old gang"—effective when the means are at hand, but no more capable than their predecessors of miracles or ominiscience. What must Mr Asquith think?