PRIVATE GOVERNMENT PRINTING.

Grey River Argus, Volume XIV, Issue 1788, 29 April 1874, Page 2

PRIVATE GOVERNMENT PRINTING.

JBROM THE BRESS ifE^S.] Some confidential returns recently printed at the Foreign Office, which it appears were desired to be kept private, have got into circulation, although the War Office is said to pay the compositors employed on work marked "confidential" at double rates. The case now complained of is Colonel Stotherd's "confidential work on submarine mines," which, though denied to the very officers at home who would have profited by its study; found its way' speedily into the hands""of" the American Government, who forthwith republished it " confidentially," but not bo secretly but that some of the London journals got hold, in their turn, of acojjy in this roundabout way, and published a series of articles on it. One journal, calling attention to the fact that what wai denied to our own officers here'had been made known in America, is answered by the " New York Army and Navy Journal; • that the copy used for the American Go vern : ment printing press was purchased; and, as though tq crown the climax of absurdity,' it adds that the copy which reached Lon,] don from America "we suppose ma,y have been purchased also," as anqthep A. merican contjdential publication haa been offered in London for LIQ to an. officer who had been denied a copy at Washington. This shows that with all the secrecy which is imposed upon the printers in the Foreign Office, private and confidential matters find their ways, abroad, in defiance of every attempt m,aae. to prevent \t T-he s.arae risk would be run if such documents were copied out by the pen. We do not see how any human ingenuity can be devised so as to defeat the objects. of men who are determined to avail themselves of important Government documents at whatever price may be "paid for- their abatractian. There is an old saying that "Every man has his price," and this seems to be true in regard to Government officials when important secrets are concerned. At the

Bank of England, when they have any very important matter io print, the copy is given out to the compositors by Mr Coe, the Bank printer, in small pieces, in the most irregular order possible, so as to prevent the Benae being arrived at by any of them. When all is set up, the copy is removed, and the only proofs pulled are taken charge of by the directors themselves, and the type is locked up secure from all observation. By having recourse to plans similar to these there is never any complaint of secrets getting out of doors in this establishment, and it does not appear to us impossible to resort to similar measures in the Foreign Office. We once heard of a very clever trick by a pressman who was employed at the Foreign Office at the time of the trial of Warren Hastings. Some very important evidence in connection with the case was being printed/ and the defence were most anxious to obtain it, and offered almost a fabulous sum to one or two of the printers if they would get it for them. But no one was given half a chance, as the type-formes and all proofs they were pulled were immediately locked up and taken charge of by a person specially appointed by the solicitor for the Crown. Still, for all this a copy was surreptitiously obtained, and this is how it was done. A pressman long since dead, had to pull the proofs, and he put a sheet of plate papers between hiß tympans, and when he took a proof of the matter which was so much coveted, he pulled his bar down rather sharp, and held it for a second or two, which gave a very fair emboss to the plate paper inside, which was thus rendered readable by being held up to the light. The old pressman had no occasion to pull proofs after this, as the price paid him for that little job enabled him to turn up printing ; but whether he ever passed his secret on to posterity or not remains to this day a mystery.