"THE PRESS" LEADING ARTICLES

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23461, 16 October 1941, Page 8

"THE PRESS" LEADING ARTICLES

-{Sir, —It is good that “The Press ■, y " :,?ding articles should be criticised. It ij 1 good that “The Press’’ is jl|; j . <<■» enough to give publicity to this i i’■•Verse criticism. . ,] '. fEven the most ardent admirer of ■ Jiese articles will concede that the " :’formation contained and the con- : i|isions arrived at in them are oftimes ;■' ijfturbing and discouraging. Yet, as '■v all know, the truth is sometimes ■i-v-i from pleasing to us. In inter- ! ! i:tional affairs we have been fed for •1 4 too long on the Pollyanna type of 4 . . unshine” outlook and the reading of f;i :ije diplomatic history of the years rWore this war is a pathetic illustraiJl Vi of the ostrich-like attitude of 4 j ’ aders to ominous drifts in world • fairs for fear that an indication of f ■ ‘ e true position might be “disagree- ' ', jle" to their people. The pursuance ; - , I such a policy jhas been to deliver •» ;j unto devastation and distrust. Even V iday too many people seek refuge , : V high-sounding phrases and slogans svt5 v t vat tend to befog rather than clarify ■- ! i < tal issues. i f,; criticism may be levelled ■ tainst “The Press” leading articles, ;:‘,jis fact cannot be gainsaid—they j ■ ■ ive revived public interest in the *'* Vding article. They have revived VVis public interest because-you have I ; ; tide your leader column a dynamic ' mmentary on current events rather L: an a colourless effusion of voluble i : Vuity distended by innocuous plati- • ; jdes and undisturbing generalities. f ;;' •. nd the public are responding to this j d esh-air treatment of editorial stuffijvdfss by reading—and criticising—these I f. -(tides instead of elevating them to ; -le classical high-shelf of unread inv , Ifference. Never in its 70 years of .d -ijrvice has “The Press” more truly j J'"' ved up to its motto, “Nihil Utile jw,i‘«od Non Honestum.” # i ■ ■' There is little likelihood that your ' 4.:,;pder-writer will be deterred from ;,*■ - pressing his honest views by critiliyi jsm, for he well knows that, to use iV-'js own words, “decisions taken must e based on knowledge and not on bpular opinion,” and to use the words i - Mr Churchill which your leaderriter himself has quoted, “There is ily one duty and only one safe lurse —that is to try to do right and )t to fear to do or say what you it.wlieve to be right.”—Yours, etc., VERITAS. flj October 15, 1941. i