13 OCTOBER 1961, Page 13

SIR,—The gossipmongering papers, which Cyril Ray had the courage to

list, namely: the Daily Express and the Mail and the supposedly superior Telegraph, have now stooped to a new level of prying that almost defies satire. It brings to mind Oscar Wilde's comment: 'In centuries before ours the public nailed the ears of journalists to the pump. That was quite hideous. In this century journalists have nailed their own ears to the keyhole; that is much worse.'