The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, MAY 13, 1908. EMPIRE NEWS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 196, 13 May 1908, Page 6

The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, MAY 13, 1908. EMPIRE NEWS.

A statement - by Mr. Deakin, published to-day,; makes it rather difficult to understand the . announcement that the London " Standard " will. shortly begin to issue every Thursday a supplement .consisting of the latest news from the oversea dependencies of the Empire.' It was at, first stated: that the " Stan-, dard" would ; bo, subsidised by Australia and Canada to publish Australian and Oana'dian dispatches, but. it nowappea-'s that the Australian subvention is no moro than a payment' for advertising space in the supplement. At any rata the' phrasing of Mr. Dcakin's explanation makes a distinction between' the "space" which he has.taken for advertising, and the space that will be occupied by news. The Federal Premier'said nothing of tho dispatch of Australia 1 .! news at tho cost of the Commonwealth. We should all like to know something further concerning the news which is to fill the columns of the • supplement, Already ,-Eeuter's' agency and the " Standard's" own correspondents in Canada furnish daily an abundance of cable dis j patches, and Australian and South African news is printed pretty freely as well. It would appear' that it is the windfall of free New Zealand news that has decided the "Standard" to specialise in " Empire news" on one day of the week. The innovation is one which everybody would like to welcome, since it is highly desirable, not only that the home-keep-ing Englishman should be kept acquainted with tho . doings of his kinsmen overseas, but that colonials visiting the centre of the Empire should be able to read at their breakfast in London the latest " news from home." One must, nevertheless, mike some reservations in praising the " Standard's " enterprise. Already, apparently, London newspaperdom ,is commenting Uneasily upon so unusual a thing aa the payment of a colonial Government subsidy to atty particular British journal. It is tho glory of the British I'fcsd that, with few exceptions, it really does preserve its liberty of opinion and the integrity of the conditions that are necessary to that, liberty. A subvention of the kind which is to bo paid to this "Standard" need not necessarily bind that journal td this interests of its paymaster as a seiition cf the country Press of New Zealand has been bound to the- service of the Government by a judicious manipulation of Government advertising. But there is another danger, of quite a different kind, in the selection of one particular London" journal as the vehicle for special subsidised news. The " Standard," ,it must be remembered, is a vigorous party newspaper—indeed, it is ferociously partisan in assailing the present British Government on almost every point of its administration. By subsidising this paper, the Governments Of the overseas Dominions will enable it to filainl ft special authority to speak for the oversew Empire. It cannot avoid growing into acceptance by tho British public as the official voice of the united colonies. •

It is easy to see to what undesirable ends it can turn such a position when there is a violent controversy over Colonial Office administration. The " Standard " has already, almost moro than any of its daily contemporaries, made use of the Colonics as sticks With which to beat the Government in the party molees. To us it appears in tho highest degree undesirable that any violently partisan newspaper should be given such a powerful weapon as colonial official patronage for the furtherance of its views on Colonial Office administration. Neither Mr. Deakin nor Sir Joseph Ward would cars to subsdribo to tho whala doctrine of tho " Standard" on any.

question. Yet there is, wc repeat, a rer.l danger that this official jugglery with news services will elevate the " Standard," in the eyes oil the British public, to a position which wc, for one, do not desire to have it or any other paper occupy.