In speaking on Tuesday of the relations between the B.B.C.
and the Press the Director-General of the B.B.C, was obviously choosing his words carefully, and they are words to which no exception can be taken. Mr. Haley, as he said, is an old journalist, and there should be no danger of his arrogating to the B.B.C. functions which belong properly to the Press. But the treatment of news by the B.B.C. after the war may raise some controversies. The agreement before the war was that no news items should be broadcast till 6 p.m., i.e., till all editions of the evening papers had been published. The demand for war news, of course, involved the upset of that arrange- ment, but the question of whether when peace returns the B.B.C. is to develop news-distribution in rivalry with the papers will need very careful consideration. Mr. Haley stated that after the war the B.B.C. would keep correspondents in all the principal capitals of the world to " give impartial, objective, responsible information on matters of international moment." That—whether it is the B.B.C.'s proper task or not—is a very serious task, and one not to be entrusted to merely clever young men. But Mr. Haley no doubt realises that I am glad to hear that the action of the Home Secretary in refusing facilities to two Conservative-Members of Parliament to visit Paris as the guests of the British Ambassador there is to be raised in the House of Commons, though, unfortunately, not till after this page • goes to press. - Mr. Morrison no doubt has his reasons and he must not be condemned unheard, but on the face of it nothing is more desirable than that British Members of Parliament Ihould visit Paris and meet French Ministers and members of the Consultative Assembly. The explanation that transport is difficult to arrange must be read in the light of the fact that it has apparently been quite possible to arrange it fora considerable number of American Congressmen, Mr. Harold Laski and Mr. Noel Coward—regarding whom, by the way, a great deal that needed saying was said with admirable force and pungency by Mr. John Gordon in last Sunday's Sunday Express. I -note that Sir John Anderson has gone to Paris and taken Lady Anderson with him. There may be good reasons for that, but there are still better reasons why Members of
Parliament should go to Paris. * * * *
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