REVIEW OF THE FOREIGN PRESS.*
WE have pleasure in calling attention to the reappearance, under private control, of the valuable Review of the Foreign Press, which was begun early in the war as a confidential War Office publication, which developed gradually into two official journals, and which, after the Armistice, was made available to the public. The Cabinet decided, we think rightly, that it was not the business of the Government to publish a newspaper of this kind. But the usefulness of the Review was so great that we are glad to find it reappearing after an interval as a private enterprise. Captain Barber remains editor, and has contrived to retain the services of his expert staff. A number of well-known men, like Sir Michael Sadler, General Cockerill, General Fabian Ware, Sir John Beale, Sir Samuel Hoare, and Professor Spenser Wilkinson, are serving on the Advisory Council. The object of the Review is to give an accurate and unbiassed summary, week by week, of what the foreign Press is saying. The Political Review deals separately with each country. The Economic Review classifies the information under subjects, and appends to each section references to new books and' pamphlets which might otherwise pass unnoticed by English readers. The task of selection and condensation is admirably done, with not the least trace of partisanship. In glancing through the first issues, of last week, we observe a good many items of information and signs of opinion that had not been published in this country. Indeed, it is the function of the Review to supplement the excellent but necessarily incomplete foreign news given in the daily papers. The editor says that " the country is entering upon a struggle for existence in which her commercial and industrial armies will surely be defeated unless every unit and every formation has its thoroughly efficient intelligence service." It is certainly important to the merchant and manufacturer to know what foreign countries are doing, no less than to the politician, the official, and, we would add, the good citizen to know what foreign peoples are saying through their Press. We congratulate Captain Barber on his twin Review, and trust that it will receive a full measure of public support.
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