3 JULY 1947, Page 9

The Press is not often so near unanimity as it

has been over the decision of the Royal Commission on the Press to hear all oral evidence in private. The Institute of Journalists and the National Union of Journalists rival each other in the emphasis of their con- demnation, and every daily and weekly paper I have read, with one exception, has taken the same line. The appointment of the Corn- mission was the outcome of an indictment of what some writers take an odd delight in calling the Press barons. It will be an odd pro- cedure if neither the proprietors nor the public are to know what the former are charged with till the Commission reports eighteen