29 NOVEMBER 1946, Page 16

TWO PROVOCATIVE PAMPHLETS

Sot,—Like Mr. Wiener, I was delighted when A.B.C.A. became B.C.A., and my sixth form and I were able to spend some profitable, or at any rate interesting, hours discussing the subjects presented in the pamphlets. Unlike Mr. Wiener, however, we were all rather shaken when we came to Conflict Over Palestine. It is true that the first signs of uneasiness came from the Jewish members of the form, but by the end of the dis- cussion I think we all realised that this particular pamphlet had departed more than a little from the standards of impartial and unprejudiced pre- sentment which had marked the previous ones. But when Control of the Press came before our scrutiny I must say we were more than shaken ; we were dismayed. We were not used to the introduction of such pre- judicial phrases as "Press Barons," fatuous and irrelevant jokes about " Jane," and a quite obvious vein of propaganda throughout. We felt, in fact, that its writer had started off by assuming the existence of an evil,

and had therefore prejudged an issue which we wanted to debate. As one of our numbet said, " You should centre the bell in the middle of the field, not inside the penalty area." We were all rather cheered when soon after the publication of Control of the Press the editors announced that they would publish second thoughts on these various topics as occa- sion arose. We felt that perhaps they too ... !—Yours faithfully,