Men off the Beat SIR,—In your issue dated September 9,
Mr McLach- lan makes allegations against the Daily Express which I feel you may wish to correct.
Mr McLachlan gives his account of Scotland Yard's announcement of the £1,000 reward offered for information leading to the arrest of Harry Roberts. He charges that by publishing the story of the reward in the first edition of the Daily Express, which went to press about an hour before the official announcement was scheduled—`at 0002 hours'—I may have endangered the whole purpose of the offer. For, says McLachlan, the point of delaying the announcement until midnight was to avoid Roberts being alerted by late radio and TV news. His friend or lodging-keeper might therefore read about the reward before he was out of bed.
McLachlan goes on: 'Instead, it was learned at Scotland Yard at 11.32 on Thursday night that the reward story was in the first edition of the Daily Express. Probably no harm was done to the opera- tion's main purpose but every office except the Express was irritated, helpful crime reporters were made to look foolish, and Scotland Yard men who are cynical about public spirit in Fleet Street smiled.'
The implications of this article are perfectly clear. So can we have the record straight? (1) No prior announcement was made to crime reporters that the reward was to be offered. (2) There was no embargo, nor was there any betrayal of confidential information by the Daily Express. (3) There was no possibility of the first edition of the Daily Express jeopardising the Yard's plan. (4) No police officer at the Yard had any cause for a cynical smile since the Express had checked with the police that there would be no objection to the report going into the first edition. (5) The plain truth is that Mr Percy Hoskins, the Daily Express Chief Crime Reporter, got a clean scoop, and the gentlemen referred to as `helpful crime reporters' were just beaten to the story. I can well understand that they would have Editor The 'Daily Express,' Fleet Street. London [Donald McLachlan writes: No charges, explicit or implied, were intended in my article. It was con- cerned with the way Scotland Yard press methods work.]
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