"Something ought to be done about it." That familiar dogma
formed the burden of Lord Kilmaine's speech in the House of Lords on Tuesday on the mis- demeanours of the Pressparticularly, in this case, in the matter of headlines. The Morning Post had headed its report of the Abyssinian discussion at Geneva "Italy Climbs Down," a caption open on broad grounds to all the criticism Lord Kilmaine passed on it. But to make that lapse on -the part of some sub-editor working under heavy pressure the ground for a demand for "some sort of -censorship of the Press" is nothing less than fantastic. This demand for censorship crops up every now and then in one quarter or another and it is well to be prepared for it. However, Lord Kilmaine's protest had the useful effect of enabling Lord Lucan, for the Government, to repeat what to Englishmen is a platitude, but to foreigners never completely credible, that "the Press. in this country in peace-time is completely indepen- dent of Government control and Government influence."
Previous page
