The Press Council is definitely to come into being. I
have always thought such a body unnecessary, and I never liked the controversial spirit in which it was first proposed. But now that it is taking shape I wish it nothing but well. It starts with a good many advantages. The draft of its constitution is the work of the two sides, managerial and editorial, of the profession, full agreement seems to have been arrived at, and while the list of its functions could be, if not criticised at least profitably discussed, it will no doubt be capable of revision in the light of experience. One sound principle has been laid down, in the stipulation that complaints about the conduct of papers should be accepted only from persons actually affected; without that safeguard the Commission might well be flooded with a mass of silly and vexatious representations none of which could be dismissed completely unexamined. To start with a good con- stitution is much, but it is in its actual working that the Com- mission will prove itself.
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