The tribute paid to British Information Services in the United
States by Mr. Charles Ferguson, one of the editors of the Reader's Digest in a letter to The Times on Monday is important evidence, for it registers the appreciation of serious journalism in America of the unobtrusive service the B.I.S. is trying to render. That the service does not satisfy the less reputable sections of the American Press is likely enough ; it is not for them that it caters, or ought to cater. One epigrammatic remark of Mr. Ferguson's, that if the work done by the B.I.S. were any better it would-not be so good, is worth pondering. What is meant, no doubt, is that any • Information Service must be content mainly with a passive role, guaranteeing to have always available any information about British affairs which an intelligent American editor may suddenly require, but not irritating editors by. pouring on to their desks a mass of unwanted matter which goes unread into the waste-paper-basket ; various national propagandists in London might with advantage learn that lesson. But a really skilful director of an information service will anticipate events and see that he has his information ready before the inevitable demand for it arises. One of the em- barrassments of the British Information Service in America must be the speeches of certain visitors from Britain which it is highly expedient to counter without involving the Service itself in politics.
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