A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
IGET from more than one source surprising reports about the hostile attitude adopted by the Quai d'Orsay, and M. Bonnet in particular, towards British journalists in Paris. I will mention no names, nor write all I know, but it is clear that a fundamental question of principle is being raised. It appears to be M. Bonnet's view that foreign journalists must accept implicitly as the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, any official statement that is handed out to them, and to criticise any act or policy of M. Bonnet's is a form of lese majeste ; it is an open secret that the Foreign Minister has been seeking means to secure the removal of perhaps the ablest British correspondent in Paris. He clearly has no conception of the blow he is dealing at Anglo-French friendship. Various circumstances have conspired to create considerable sensitiveness in this country regarding the liberty of the Press, and any sus- picion that the French Foreign Minister was attempting to interfere with the independence of the very competent British journalists on whom we rely for unvarnished news of France would arouse universal resentment. We do not expect Rome or Berlin methods at Paris.
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