24 MARCH 1939, Page 6

A rather pertinent question of literary etiquette—or ethics —arises in

connexion with Sir Edward Marsh's new book, A Number of People. Passages from the volume have appeared in advance in the Sunday Times, including one to the effect that when Lord Morley was deputising for Sir Edward Grey at the Foreign Office the Editor of the Daily News urgently pressed for an interview, which was refused in particularly caustic language. Mr. A. G. Gardiner, who was at the period referred to Editor of the Daily News, immediately wrote to the Sunday Times, stating categorically that "I never at any time called at the Foreign Office for an interview with Lord Morley. I was never refused an interview with him either at the Foreign Office or elsewhere. for the sufficient reason that I never asked for one." Yet the original statement appears unaltered in the bound volume, without so much as the insertion of an erratum slip.

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