19 OCTOBER 1945, Page 13

- LORD KEMSLEY'S NEWSPAPERS

Sul,—The list of newspapers which your contributor " Janus " sets out as being under my control fs inaccurate in the sense that it is incomplete. That, no doubt, is pure inadvertence, but there can be no such defence to your suggestion that in linking other newspapers to this group I am treating them as "mere articles of commerce." There is undoubtedly room for two views on whether it is desirable for newspapers to be grouped in a common organisation, but that is no justification for the suggestion that the controllers of such an organisation are necessarily more swayed by commercial motives than are, say, the proprietors of The Spectator or any other single organ of opinion.

I admit that each of the companies with which I am connected is a sound commercial concern. If there is any cause for reproach in that fact I willingly accept the blame. But so long as I am privileged to direct their efforts I shall always place public interests foremost and my own commercial interests last. The success they have achieved is due, in my