I am constantly filled with what I hope is a
proper pro- fessional pride at the omniscience of the British Press. We possess papers that can see what never happened and hear what was never said. The latest journal to awaken my admiration is the Daily Express. The Express, which has been running a campaign—very usefully—against Government extravagance, commented on Tuesday on a number of questions on the Order Paper of the House of Commons on the previous day regarding alleged prodigality by the Foreign Office in different fields. The questions were dealt with that day by the Under- Secretary. The Express observed that " Mr. Anthony Nutting stonewalled against suggestions that there was extravagance in the running of the Foreign Office. And sounded hurt at talk of economy." The last sentence argues skill, which I do not doubt the commentator possesses in a high degree, in the inter- pretation of intonation. It was in this case a remarkable degree of skill, for there was in fact no intonation at all. Not a single Foreign Office question was answered orally on Monday. Mr. Nutting, as Hansard shows, never opened his mouth. Written answers were circulated to questioners. Odd ? Or not odd ?
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