12 JULY 1940, Page 5

I have been sent a rather sumptuous publication on the

United States, described as a Picture Post Special, which has jut appeared. It evokes nothing but admiration ; but what interests me particularly is not its quality but its weight. It contains 175 pages, and I find turns the scale at just over I :b. 5 oz. I do not, of course, know how many have been printed, but Picture Post habitually does things on a generous scaie, and ioo,000 can safely be taken as a minimum ; I should expect indeed that three or four times that number would be sold. Now the weight of 1oo,00o copies of the new " special " is ,ust over 58 tons, the weight of 200,000 copies 117 tons, of 3c),000 copies 175 tons. The paper shortage is notoriously ac.ite ; The Spectator is at present being allowed exactly 211 to.is for a whole quarter, 13 weeks, and all representations have fa:ed to extract from the authorities a single ounce more. Mny other similar papers are in like case. Picture Post, of course, has been acting with the full approval, indeed for all I know with the actual collaboration, of " the authorities." I rn :Ice no particular complaint, difficult as the situation for Papers like this journal is. Justice no doubt tries to be even- handed, even if it does not always brilliantly succeed.