A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
TO lecture to the German prisoners taking the educational course at the Training Centre at Wilton Park is an exhilarating ex- perience, as readers of the admirable article Harold Nicolson wrote in this journal after a recent visit there, will realise. My own task this week was to give three hundred men or more who have applied, and secured permission, to take a six-weeks' course in what may broadly be described as the democratic view of life, an intelligible account how the British Press is run and the principles that animate it. What struck me most was the proportion of men— I should judge about a third—who evidently understood English well. Though I was translated, paragraph by paragraph, by a brilliant interpreter, the way points were taken, and my attempts at light humour appreciated, in my own English version was remarkable. Equally notable were the questions which came in volleys after the address. All were pertinent, none foolish and none hostile, though there was obviously no consciousness of restraint. One man, who was struck with the correspondence columns in British papers, and wanted to know on what principle letters were selected for publica- tion, was (I was told) a noted U-boat ace. Another wanted to know why, if the papers were as generally satisfactorily run as I had claimed, there was a clamour for an enquiry into the conduct of the Press ; another asked about the influence of advertisers on editorial policy ; another on what freedom an editor enjoyed in relation to his proprietors. I hope my answers satisfied them. The value of this kind of open forum is obvious. On many of the Germans at Wilton Park the course will, no doubt; make little impression or none. But on many others it will, and does, make much ; it would not be astonishing if Old Wiltonians in Germany came to form a small but very valuable camaraderie.
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