“WHAT MR BALDWIN SAID”

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22431, 18 June 1938, Page 20

“WHAT MR BALDWIN SAID”

TO THB XDITOS Ol> TBB FBtSS. Sir, —In your editorial columns of June 8, under the above heading, you bring a charge of using “misrepresentation, half truths, and suppression" against the Minister for Lands in regard to his quotation of Mr Baldwin’s famous counter-attack upon Lords Beaverbtook and Rothermere. In support of your Charge, you write: “The facts follow. On March 16, 1931, Mr Baldwin spoke . . , and took the occasion to reply to attacks on his leadership by the ‘Daily Mail’ and the •Daily Express,’ the organs of the press lords, Lord Rothermere and Lord Beaverbrook. Mr Baldwin’s remarks on this occasion (as on others) were directed specifically, against these two newspapers, and the policy of their proprietors, not against the press gen- ' orally.” That is your version of “the facts.” But, according to “The Times” report, which you quote, “Mr Baldwin described the newspapers conducted by Lord Rothermere and Lord Beaverbrook as engines of propaganda for the constantly changing policies, desires, personal wishes, and personal likes and dislikes of two men. He asserted that they used the methods of misrepresentation, half truths, suppression, and editorial criticism of speeches which were not reported In the,paper.”, He accused -‘the proprietors of the newspapers which he. criticised Of aiming at power without responsibility,” etc. According to “The Times,” Mr Baldwin did not "specifically mention” either the “Dally Mall" or the “Daily Express,” nor did he restrict his censure to “two newspapers only.” He said: “The newspapers conducted by Lord Rothermere and Lord Beaverbrook as engines of propaganda.” Here are some “facts” concerning “the newspapers conducted 1 by Lord Rothermere and Lord Beaverbrook,” which VOUr editorial overlooked. .1 refer to the period under review by Mr Baldwin in his speech. The “Daily Mirror” controls the “SUnday Pictorial”; together they control the Dally Mail Trust; the Daily Mail Trust owns 51 1-3 per cent, of the deferred shares of the Associated Newspapers, Ltd., which owns the “Daily Mail,” “Evening News,” “Weekly Dispatch,” and “Overseas Daily Mall.” The “Daily

Mirror” and ‘‘Sunday Pictorial” control the “Daily Sketch” and the “Sunday Herald.” “And,” as the financial expert of the “Nation” observes, “Lord Rothermere controls the whole lot by controlling, the ‘Daily Mirror’.”

Nor was Lord Beaverbrook’s interest in the press confined to the one newspaper you mention. At the time the Canadian press lord was carrying out his vendetta against Mr Baldwin he controlled, in addition to the “Daily Express,” the ' “Sunday .Express” and the “Evening Dispatch.” So that “the newspapers conducted by Lords Rothermere and Beaverbrook,” to which Mr Baldwin referred, instead of being “two newspapers,” as stated by you, were, in fact, “the greatest machine of publicity the world has ever seen."

If Mr Langstone was guilty of “misrepresentation, half truths, and suppression” in his references to Mr Baldwin and the press, so also must have been that famous English essayist, “Alpha of the Plough,” when he wrote: “Mr Asquith fell during the war because he would not bargain with this new tyranny of an irresponsible power, and it is not the least of the claims, which Mr Baldwin has established upon the gratitude of the country that he has set his face resolutely against the insolent pretensions of newspaper owners to reduce Downing Street to the position of an annexe of Fleet street.” To those journalists and politicians who prate so constantly of “the freedom of the press,” I would commend for quiet meditation the phrase, “this new tyranny of an irresponsible power.”—Yours, etc., J. G. GOW. Oamaru, June 15, 1938. [We shall readily consent to substituting “Mr Baldwin’s remarks . . . were directed specifically against these two newspaper groups” for “Mr Baldwin’s remarks were directed • specifically against these two newspapers.” Our point—that Mr Langstone quoted against the press generally Mr Baldwin’s reply to particular newspapers, under a particular proprietorship—is entirely unaffected. Mr Langstone, quoting as he did, suppressed essentials and accordingly misrepresented the facts. London comment, so far as we can now trace it, applied Mr Baldwin’s words to the “Daily Mail” and the “Daily Express”: the “Spectator,” however, mentioned also the evening affiliate of each. The cable message (March 19, 1931) reporting the speech mentioned the “Express” and the “Mail” only. The predominance, politically, of these two papers in the Beaverbrook and Rothermere groups is, of course the only and sufficient reason for omitting to , name the jackals with the lions.—Ed., “The Press.”]