POLITICIAN AND PRESS TRUST

Evening Post, Volume XCVII, Issue 93, 22 April 1919, Page 6

POLITICIAN AND PRESS TRUST

The earlier reports of Mr. Lloyd George's speech, in which appeared the remark that a good peace is preferable to "a good press," indicated a revolt against the Northcliffe dictatorship; but it now appears that the politician's challenge to the newspaper Napoleon was both deliberate and definite. Startling as the development is, it is really a return to older days. Even in the choice of words history is repeating itself, for this is by no means the first time that Mr. Lloyd George has placed The Times and the Daily Mail side by side on the same pillory. When, as an Asquithian Minister, he fought the battle of the Budget and the House of Lords, an attack upon the Daily Mail—" the threepenny edition as well as the halfpenny one" —was one of his most spirited sallies; 'and it is no exaggeration to say that all over England opponents of " Northcliffeism " will welcome this reversion of the Prime Minister to an earlier type. The castigation of the noble Viscount (Lord Northcliffe received this added title from Mr. Lloyd George in 1917) has even caused some jubilation id the columns of Mr. A. S. Gardiner's Daily News. If the News is correct in treating this demonstration not as a mere domestic squabble but as a final breach of the " inglorious association " of " the great twin brothers," then far-reaching political effects may follow. And Lord Northcliffe may discover that to again swing England—or even the Unionist Party—is a harder task than he has yet experienced. '-■•