14. A1)ING MR. SINGLETON-GATES'S story of his encounter with 1 t' William
Joynson-Hicks, I am reminded of a,pamphlet that clue wrote shortly after he had left the Home Office, and become Viscount Brentford. Do We Need a Censor? was Published in the Criterion Miscellany in 1929; and it still seems to me to be appalling in its revelation of the damage that a Politician who combines self-righteousness with stupidity might do in high office. He argues that when publishers are in doubt, the sensible thing for them to do is to consult the Home Office. 'for the Home Secretary to read any book which may be submitted . . . and after taking such advice as he thinks fit, to inform the publisher of his considered opinion.' He actually took this course on one occasion : 'I gave an opinion to the effect that the publication of the book constituted an infringement of the law, and 1 was at once held up to execra- tion.' The Home Office did not gently explain to him that Government licensing of the press had been abolished over two centuries before; so far from admitting his gaffe, Lord Brent- ford in his pamphlet is astonished that anybody would have objected to his attempt to establish a one-man State censorship. In the light of subsequent events I can't help thinking that this mentality is not absent from the Home Office today.
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