3 JUNE 1943, Page 14

THE PRESS

SIR—Mr. Falcom's letter conveys the impression most successfully that he has little patience with those he would no doubt disdainfully dismiss as tinkerers. It is typical that he plumps uncompromisingly for cheaper newsprint as providing the key to a healthier and freer Press. In this, I suggest, he is guilty of a fantastic over-simplification, seeing that cheap newsprint would be a grave liability if first the fretful question had not been decided of how best strictly to control the ways in which the newsprint should be used. Pre-war papers often used newsprint reck- lessly, sometimes even flippantly. Certainly cleanliness and freedom besides being eminently desirable sound impressively simple, but are