Unlike changes in government personnel, which almost always come for reasons which are obvious to everyone, changes in military command are not always so clear. For every new general is always officially an erudite bear cat until he is succeeded. Then he becomes an ignoramus and a scared cat.
Last week Britain's R. A. F. announced an important change. Sir Cyril Louis Norton Newall was replaced as Chief of Air Staff by Sir Charles Frederick Algernon Portal, formerly head of the bomber command. Sir Cyril was immediately branded by unofficial gossip as a defeatist, a Chamberlain appointee whom soft-hearted colleagues...