THE MEETING OF THE LIFE MEMBERS OF THE "SPECTATOR."
ON Fri October 12th, the first meeting of the Spectator's
Life was held at the Hotel Cecil. Mr. Strachey opened the proceedings by asking Major John Astor of the Times to take the chair. In doing so, he said what happiness it gave him to meet the Life Members of the Spectator face to face. He had always felt that an editor was in the position of a man standing by an open window and shouting into the dark. He knows that there are people there, and that they can hear what he has to say, but he does not know what the response will be, because he can get no message from them directly. He spoke of Major John Astor as the man who " gave the nation back its Times," and pointed out the appropriateness of Major Astor taking the chair at such a meeting as that of the Spectator Life Members. opened the proceedings by asking Major John Astor of the Times to take the chair. In doing so, he said what happiness it gave him to meet the Life Members of the Spectator face to face. He had always felt that an editor was in the position of a man standing by an open window and shouting into the dark. He knows that there are people there, and that they can hear what he has to say, but he does not know what the response will be, because he can get no message from them directly. He spoke of Major John Astor as the man who " gave the nation back its Times," and pointed out the appropriateness of Major Astor taking the chair at such a meeting as that of the Spectator Life Members.
Major Astor then addressed the meeting. He said : " I am not going to waste your time by trying to explain to you why I am here. I am here because Mr. Strachey asked me to come. I have a very great personal regard for Mr. Strachey, and I consider it a pleasure if not an honour to preside at this meeting of those who have been so wise as to become Life Members of the Spectator. We all appre- ciate what Mr. Strachey is doing. He means not only to give us the benefit of his wise comments on current affairs, together with those of other writers who view the world of politics from a similar standpoint to his own, but also to give the hospitality of his columns to sincere and genuine expositors of other points of view. He knows, and I heartily agree with him, that however sound a judgment is, it is all the more convincing if it follows upon a concrete statement Of both sides of a question. I think this method, whenever it has been tried, has been welcomed by the serious reading public. We none of us doubt Mr. Strachey's ability to hold his own in controversy with all comers. Further, I think we like to see him proving himself and justifying our faith in him, and his every success is a source of real satis- faction to us."
He then went on to speak of the importance of independent journalism, a subject which he is going to put before the readers of the Spectator in an article in a forthcoming issue.
Mr. Strachey then gave his report on the position and prospects of the Spectator. After touching on the success of the Life Membership scheme, he stated that the loss of income which was last year incurred by the drop in price from 9d. to 6d. had been more than compensated by a -notable expansion in advertisements and a no less notable rise in circulation. He said, however, that like all other newspapers the Spectator was anxious for a greater circula- tion and so for greater influence, and he asked Life Members as- friends of- the Spectator to do all that was in their power to assist him to attain this greater circulation.
He stated some facts and figures which had been obtained as the result of a questionnaire which was sent out last spring to a large number of Spectator readers. The first question that was asked was whether readers found the " News of the Week " of use as a summary of world affairs ; 94 per cent. answered " Yes," 1 j per cent. " No." The rest were non-committal or left the answer blank. Seventy- three per cent. thought that the Spectator was wise in devoting space to Mr. Evelyn Wrench's notes on the English-speaking peoples, and only 8 per cent. thought the reverse. Eighty per cent. of the readers were in favour of Nature articles. Another question was whether readers made a practice of passing on their copies of the Spectator to others. No less than 80 per cent. stated that they did so, and in many cases to more than one person. Mr. Strachey said that he was delighted that they did so, for it brought him into touch with many readers who could not afford to pay 6d. a week for the Spectator. He read_ out an answer to this question received from New Zealand. It ran : " Yes, to half-a-dozen people, beginning with a professor of Greek
and ending with a Unitarian minister and a Communist railway porter."
In answer to the question whether our readers would like any new features, and if so what, many had said that they would like a signed article each week by a prominent and really independent man. Mr. Strachey said that the Spectator was going to publish such articles during the autumn.
Mr. Strachey then threw out several suggestions for dis. cussion by the Life Members in the latter part of the meeting. He said that he and his editorial staff had been delighted to find from answers to the questionnaire that what the public liked best were the editorial and leading articles, Book reviews and literary articles came next, and the " News of the Week " paragraphs a very good third.
Many readers had asked for more space to be devoted to science. It was for this reason that the Spectator had already published several articles by such prominent men of science as Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Julian Huxley, and the Spectator meant to publish more.
Mr. Strachey ended his speech by contrasting the position of the proprietor of a single independent newspaper with that of one of the groups of the syndicated Press. The independent editor " cannot hitch his little wagon to fifteen or sixteen stars. He must be content to push it along as best he can at the edge of the kerbstone, watching as he does so the great procession of Coroneted Chroniclers of News and Comment seated in their gilded cars of state :—
" Pride in their port, defiance in their eye, I see the lords of trust-made thought go by."
Perhaps some day the little wagons would turn and meet syndication with stabilization. The thing was not impossible ; but till then the Spectator would be content. " As long as we maintain the confidence of our readers and can rely upon the special advice and support of our Elder Statesmen we have nothing to fear."
There then followed a general discussion by the Life Members present of the points which had been raised by Mr. Strachey. Speakers touched on the possibility of more space being devoted to Local Government, the " Other Side " in Theology, women's topics, matters of importance to readers overseas, and so on. Mr. Strachey made it clear that, although he valued nothing so much as the advice and suggestions of the Life Members, lie could not, of course, regard those present in any other way than as specimen readers, and he must in every ease be guided by what he believed to be the wishes not only of them but of all the readers of the Spectator. The question whether space should be found for a weekly acrostic was discussed, and the Life Members by a small majority recommended that this should not be done. But we should be grateful to any of our readers who would let us have their views on this subject.
At half-past four tea was served, and Sir Walter Lawrence moved a vote of thanks to Major Astor for taking the chair. After the motion had been seconded by Mr. Eric Gore-Brown and carried unanimously the meeting ended.
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