22 JUNE 1956, Page 7

S OMEBODY—was it the redoubtable Hannen Swaffer? —once said that the

job of a journalist is to speed the evolution of a story through all its stages from the official denial to the official confirmation. The final stage in this process was surely reached in the Daily Herald last week. suggesting that the butch Government had managed to fuse both stages in a single communique. 'The Dutch Nation' (the Herald's lead story began) 'will be told the truth officially this morning—the marriage of Queen Juliana and Prince Bernhard has broken down.' Further down the page came the real punch line : 'The news is going to be broken gently. It will be more a denial than an admission.'

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