6 JANUARY 1967, Page 13

Fleet Street Under Pressure

SIR,—As a newspaper worker, I have been most in- terested to read the recent articles on the press by Donald McLachlan, especially as he writes with a long experience in editorial capacity on the two Telegraphs.

His comments on the Guardian (December 16) were most timely. All too often during recent weeks the blame for the Guardian's difficulties has been largely placed on the unions. Mr McLachlan rightly points out that the onus for deciding to print in London—an extremely rash decision in the opinion of many, including, I recollect, Lord Beaverbrook —is on the Guardian's management. In saying they

had 'clearly miscalculated' on this issue, Mr McLachlan is being extremely charitable to the Guardian: some of us would use a stronger term.

Mr Hetherington still lamely attempts to justify the enormous expense of this rash venture by the comparatively small number of extra readers gained in the south--I believe about 60,000 at the most. But in the comparative period of five years the Daily Telegraph has gained 109,185—this without the enormous extra expense of printing in a second centre, which, of course, it has done for over twenty years.

I feel it most unfair, and quite wrong, that for the sake of about 60,000 new readers (many of whom may have been drawn to the paper anyway), the paper should be placed in its present parlous state, involving wholesale economies and many