* * The " Spectator " * Mr. J. B. Atkins
has given up regular and routine work for the Spectator, though we are glad to say that he will continue to write for us from the country. The Proprietor of the Spectator gave, on Tuesday last, a dinner- party in honour of Mr. Atkins, to whom a presentation was made. Mr. Strachey introduced him twenty-eight years ago after he had served on the Manchester Guardian both in Manchester, and as War correspondent in Cuba, Greece and South Africa. The unpayable debts which his colleagues feel that they owe to him are no matter for publication, but we would like our readers to realize something of the debt which we believe that they and his country owe to him. Week by week he has provided articles written with the sound journalistic technique which he cultivated very seriously, and with a sane well-informed and judicious outlook on politics, morals and literature, taking all the world for his province. During the War when Mr. Strachey was for a long time ill, the burden of conducting the paper through those critical days fell upon Mr. Atkins. He would give much credit to his colleagues of that time, but they know how, with other burdens to bear, he was the main, unfailing support of the paper. We have been proud to be told that the Spectator helped the country greatly by its steadiness and its invincible faith even in the darkest days. Those were the virtues of Mr. Atkins, to whom the Spectator gives the credit for the reflected honour. * * * *
Previous page
