SIR,—Your comments on the action of the People in breaking
the embargo upon the pub- lication of the Honours List seem to be a compound of mis-statement and ignorance.
You are in error in stating that the Press Association sent out the List 'for the benefit of provincial newspapers' on Saturday, December 31. In fact the List was circulated by the Press Association on Friday, December 30, for the benefit of all newspapers, not only for those in the provinces.
To issue the Honours List on December 30, embargoed from publication until January 2, when the time-honoured custom is for publica- tion on January 1, was stretching the embargo arrangements far beyond their normal usage and ignoring completely the rights of Sunday newspapers publishing on January I.
This was not just my view, as you suggest. On the contrary, there was a concerted move by at least four Sunday newspaper editors to get the embargo lifted so that the Honours List could be published on New Year's Day. When this was unavailing, the editors con- cerned were of the opinion that the embargo should be broken by all of them, since no justification for it was forthcoming other than that it was traditional for first publication to be made in the London Gazette.
For one reason or another, but mostly be- cause of space problems, the other Sunday editors decided not to publish the List. I did so, but in face of the foregoing it is not sur- prising, as you say, that there was 'not a murmur out of any other newspaper.'
Cheap jibes against popular newspapers are now the common sport of so-called respectable organs like the Spectator. It is time the public realised that, as in this case, the game is played with an utter disregard—and a woeful lack of knowledge—of the true position.
May I ask that in fairness to your readers you now print this letter? Fairness to news- papers like the People is something they can hardly expect.—Yours faithfully,
STUART CAMPBELL Managing Editor The 'People,' 92 Long Acre, WC2
[This correspondence is referred to by Pharos in 'A Spectator's Notebook.'—Editor, Specta- tor.]
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