A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
FROM time to time I am consulted about private news-sheets, obtainable by subscription only, and claiming to supply information of high importance to persons who in their sim- plicity rely for their news of what's what on the daily Press. The prospectus of one such publication is before me at this moment. Its claims are fortified by an impressive paraphernalia of italics and capitals, but such is my cynicism, born of long experience, that they impress me not at all. It is no doubt possible to guess intelligently, and often to guess right. It is the right guesses that can be pertinently emphasised, while the wrong ones are discreetly ignored. The general comment is obvious. Papers like The Times and the Daily Tele- graph spend hundreds of thousands of pounds a year in securing the most reliable news from alert and experienced and highly-paid journalists all over the world. How probable is it that they in fact miss all that really matters and leave it to be purveyed—to sub- scribers only—by these mysterious secret services ? But the idea, however illusory, of getting special information unknown to the newspapers always appeals to persons of a certain temperament— an essentially credulous temperament.
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