MARGINAL COMMENT
By HAROLD NICOLSON
THE decision of the Government to restrict the import of news- print has aroused what is known as a bad Press. Newspapers of every shade of opinion have united to condemn the decision as unnecessary, malicious and wounding to the soul of the British people. Although alt in consonance have been provoked to indigna- tion, they have voiced their common rage in a variety of tones. Seldom in fact have I heard so large a number of people sing the same tune in so many different keys. It reminded me of a fair held in a small Walloon town ; there were the fifes and whistles, the trumpets and the paper bags of the juveniles ; there were the drums and cymbals of the more commercial undertakings ; and behind it the bourdon of the belfries thundered reiterated reproach. There are those, I know, who attribute to this governmental decision the most sinister of purposes ; to them the disappearance from our streets of long lines of lorries groaning under spools of newsprint represents the thin, so to speak, end of the wedge ; so deeply do they feel about this wedge that they start quoting the Areopagitica. Yet I observe that only rarely, or in specialised resorts, will you find three people agreeing upon what section of their own newspaper could least harmfully be cut. To me it seems insane that a huge proportion of this valuable commodity known as newsprint should be- expended upon recording the exploits of dogs and horses or describing the celerity with which men in different counties have struck, caught or propelled little balls.. On the other hand, I feel it right that whole sheets should be devoted to reporting Parliament and the law courts and that vast spaces should be reserved for en- lightened commentaries upon the things of the mind. But when I say such things to my Fleet Street friends I am conscious that my remarks are regarded as unbecoming or insincere. I am aware that behind the embarrassed disapproval of their eyes, their brains are questioning whether I am mad, drunk or merely very rude.
* * We are passing through a phase of cumulative danger ; through a flood-rush of events which forces the Cabinet every week to make some decision in internal or external policy which will affect the whole future of the Commonwealth and Empire. Such decisions, if they are to remain operative, must command the thoughtful acquiescence of the majority, must be understood and accepted by at least7o per cent. of the electors of this country. In the long period between 1689 and 1945 when the governance of England was in fact, if not in name, a tempered oligarchy, there really did exist a dis- tinction between informed and uninformed opinion. There were whole areas of domestic, ancrabove all of foreign, policy which the ordinary elector regarded as beyond his ken ; he was quite prepared, without undue suspicion or alarm, to leave decisions in such matters to those who, he assumed, were best informed. That period, with all its faults and all its advantages, is now over, the old elite has been deliberately disc:edited ; and no new elite has since emerged to fill its place. It is regrettable that the decline in authority, the disrespect into which knowledge has fallen, should have coincided with one of those recurrent phases in our history when empiricism is impossible and when precise commitments must be entered into at once. The decisions which we now have to make are more drastic and urgent than before ; and yet the sovereign opinion by which those decisions must be backed is, as never before, a suspicious and ill-grounded opinion. Never in our history has it been so important to inform the public ; and never has the sovereign will been so ill-informed. It is not merely that our popular newspaoers are restricted in spaCe ; it is also that they devote the space available to entertaining and flattering their readers rather than to instructing them.
* * * The din created by this orchestra of journalistic anger, the crash of cymbals and trumpets, have hushed the fluted plaint of those whose business it is to publish books. I am glad, therefore, that Messrs. Allan Wingate should have issued this week a demure little pamphlet entitled The Battle of the Books. It is edited by Mr. Gerard Hopkins and contains many sound and authoritative contributions. I am one of those eccentric authors who regard publishers as among the most misunderstood and altruistic of men. In that they do not constitute a pressure,-group, their rights, their wrongs, and their services are not taken into due account. In theory, the authorities are aware of the importance of the book-publishing trade, if only as a source of export. But in practice they accord to the trade no more than what Mr. Hopkins calls " dribs and drabs of consolation," and they treat it rough. On May 9th Mr. Belcher, speaking in the House of Commons, made a remark which was so casual as to cause affront. He stated that paper was needed for more important things than books, for instance, for " wrapping up food." I am assured that this was an inaccurate as well as a wounding remark, since the paper in which one wraps up food is not the same, as Mr. Belcher might have known, as that on which one prints books. Such remarks do, in fact, impel one to consult the Areopagitica, a speech addressed in 1644 by Mr. John Milton to the Parliament of England. In this he begged the Lords and Commons " to consider what nation it is whereof ye are, and whereof ye are the governors ; a nation, not slow or dull, but of a quick, ingenious and piercing spirit. . . . An eagle mewing its mighty youth." Mr. Belcher's remark was not worthy either of our youth or of an eagle mewing it.
* * * * The shortage of books is not, of course, entirely due to paper restrictions. There is also a lack of printing equipment, binding machinery and highly skilled workers. There is also the problem of glue. " Great caution," writes Mr. Douglas Leighton cryptically, " is needed when discussing the glue position." But the fact remains that never has there been so short a supply of books or so huge a demand. In 1921, so Mr. Welsford informs us, the stock of books in public libraries was ten millions, registered borrowers under two millions, and issues 54 millions. By 1939 these figures had increased to 32 millions, nine millions and 247 millions. The demand for English books abroad has also increased enormously ; our resistance in 1940, the remarkable political and social adjustments which have since occurred, our wise treatment of the Indian problem, have all filled foreigners with a conviction that English habits of life and thought may repay careful study ; yet what a meagre trickle of English books finds its way into the book shops of the Continent and the Dominions. Then there is the question of reprints ; stocks have diminished and many millions of books were destroyed during the blitz ; it is estimated by the Publishers' Association that there are now some 40,000 books waiting to be reprinted. The shortage of school text-books is such that little profit will be gained by the raising of the school age. It is galling for the publishers, when they con- sider their own needs and opportunities, to reflect that the Stationery Office uses more paper than all the publishers put together. I am not surprised that they should feel injured and disregarded.
* * * - * More serious is the effect of this shortage upon the young author. No publisher can afford to allow his stock of books to go out of print or to lose his established authors. It is much to the credit of pub- lishers that they do not play entirely for safety, but reserve a propor- tion of their allocation for experiments with the young unknown. But the fact remains that the young author today finds great difficulty in having his books published ; and the thought of this makes my blood seethe with rage. Do the public realise that publishers today are granted only 21 per cent. of all the paper produced? Do they realise that all they ask for is that this pitiable allocation should be raised to 13- per cent.? Surely such an increase would not damage our dollar position, or affect the newspapers, or diminish to any serious extent the amount required for wrapping up food?
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