SIR,—Replying to your query concerning the non- publication of ballot
figures by trade unions, I ant no authority upon this point; but it should be obvious that this secrecy is not confined to trade unions. Yet these bodies arc always singled out for criticism. In the present instance the master printers are equally reticent. The relatively large number of printing firms who arc not enforcing the lock- out shows that there must have been a larger number who voted against it; yet no journal ever asks for the publication of such figures, which appear generally to he regarded as solely an internal affair of the organisation. I am not defending the practice of secrecy : if you regard the matter as inimical to public. interest, then you should in fairness criticise both sections in the dispute.
On the question of the 1950 and 1956 disputes. it is relevant to state that throughout both these dis- putes I continued to receive the Spectator as for- merly, bearing the same imprint and set out in the same format, showing that whatever troubles you experienced in production did not affect general dis- tribution of your normal publication in its usual form.—Yours faithfully,
FRANK IL Pi NNIN
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