In Trust
INCE we went to press last week further evi-
0
dence for the defence has been put forward in the case against the executioners of the News Chronicle and the Star. The evidence is un- convincing. In a letter to the Times Lord Layton and Sir Geoffrey Crowther—the only two mem- bers of the Daily News Trust who are not con- nected with the Cadbury family—have placed on record the fact that they entirely concurred in the decision.
The reasons they give for their concurrence are extraordinary. `The decision to sell the papers now,' they explain, `was made in the interests of the staff.' Has Lord Layton or Sir Geoffrey talked to members of the staff? Have they read what members of the staff have written on the subject?
But what was significant about their letter was its reminder of the existence of the Daily News Trust: established by George Cadbury for the purposes described by his biographer, A. G. Gardiner : In the Trust Deed which he [George Cadbury] caused to be drawn up for the transfer of his interest in the papers the bulk of the shares were disposed of so as to provide that their policy should, as far as was humanly possible, be main- tained on the lines 'which he approved, and that the profits that might accrue should be applied to certain specific purposes in which he was interested.
Now, whatever might be said about George Cadbury's addiction to cant—and a lot was said, by the Spectator among others—the Trust Deed itself and the instructions he left with it make it perfectly clear that the idea of selling the News Chronicle to the Mail—a newspaper which, even if some beneficial changes since his time are less facetious opening, 'It is terribly sad 1,°,0 and the point of naming men with Fleetm week the Economist, which ordinarily b°a0rl discussed the case under a mildly facetious 4 said goodbye.' But what was really der" s about the piece was not that it evaded the `cal tial issues, or that it was embarrassedly the Economist's chairman is Lord LaYt°11./.0. its deputy chairman is Sir Geoffrey Co``t his notions of what the aims of a news should be. And this has disturbing imPlrcatr Nobody need be surprised if Laurence Csdl is more interested in Fruit and Nut thlli standing like Lord Layton and Sir 67,
aims of the Trust are followed.
out of it which cannot go unmentioned
this case, presumably, the newspaper Oa
line, 'Death of a Millionaire, and with a pas newspapers—he has a perfect right to bed newspapers protection in such circumsta
Crowther as Trustees is to ensure that the °'
mouthed, but that nowhere did it nienti°11,s not have approved: he would have been the point of a Trust of that kind is to all
its devotion to the interests of the consaede
fled, as the Mail's aims are utterly reowic In the meantime there is one side-issue at tke st,„(
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