The delegates of the five Great Powers decided on Friday
week that the Pfess should be admitted to the plenary sessions of the Allied Peace Conference in Paris, the first of which was held last Saturday. The delegates also set forth at length the reasons why Press representatives could not attend all their " conver. sations," which " are far more analogous to the meetings of a Cabinet than to those of a Legislature," and deal with delicate, complex, and highly controversial matters. We must confess to surprise that experienced journalists should have to be instructed in such elementary truths. Every one knows that the Allies hold diverse views on many points, and that they have met in conference to reconcile and adjust their differences. If their discussions were reported daily, they would tend to drift farther apart instead of drawing nearer together, as the public in each country would expect its statesmen to maintain the national point of view. Apart from this, if the journalists now assembled in Pada insisted on attending all the Allies' formal meetings, the statesmen would have to arrange matters in- formally over the dinner-table or at other times when they could bo free. This would delay the work of the Conference, but it would not really help the journalists to obtain good " copy."
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