Mr. Asquith remarked that he still believed the power of
the Press over opinion to be greatly exaggerated -among politicians. He regretted the very deleterious change in the relations between editors and newspaper owners, now that there is in the newspaper syndicates "a series of megaphones, of Taxying degrees of range and stridency, but to a very large extent, at any rate, vehicles of one and the same voice." The Press had on the whole shown -its patriotism during the war. Mr. Asquith said that he did not mind newspaper campaigns against politicians—" we can take acre of ourselves "—but that the campaigns against soldiers and sailors were most reprehensible. He recalled the violent attacks on Lord Kitchener in the first year of the war, and said that he advised the King to give him the Garter at the first opportunity. Lord Kitchener, who ".had an admirably thick skin and an imperturbable temper," said, mentioning the name of one journalist, " I owe him no grudge ; he gave me the Garter."
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