MORNING POST

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19047, 18 December 1923, Page 7

MORNING POST

RUMOURS OF ITS SALE. CONSERVATIVE SYNDICATE NEGOTIATING. Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyrig it LONDON, December 16. The rumour that Lady Bathurst is selling the Morning Post is strengthened by her reply to an inquiry by the Daily News, in which she neither confirmed nor denied the report, but advised the inquirer to “wait and see.” It is stated that a syndicate comprising Lord Whittenham, Mr Rupert Beckett, and Colonel F. S- Jackson (the famous cricketer) are buying the Post on behalf of the Conservatives ; also that they intend to issue an evening paper. Messrs Beckett and Jackson are directors of the Yorkshire Post. — Reuter. Lady Bathurst, who owns and controls the famous papei, was described by the late Lord Northcliffe as the most influential woman in Great Britain. The Morning Post is the oldest of London daily newspapers, and was founded in 1772 as an uncompromising supporter of Toryism and the “King's Party.' 1 In 1795 the property was bought by Daniel Stuart. In 1803 Stuart sold the paper for £25,000, and from that point its influence began to wane. In 1820 it was principally the organ •of the fashionable world, and in the fifties it became the organ of Lord Palmerston. In 1875 Lord Gtenesk (at that time Mr Algernon Borthwick) became sole proprietor. He had been manager or editor since 1851. In 1882 the paper was reduced from threepence to one penny. It is at the present time one of the principal Conservative organs in London. Its colonial intelligence is admirable. There are no better Parliamentary reports than it supplies, and it is often exceedingly frank and hard-hitting. Among other things it is beautifully printed. Mr H. A. Gwynne became editor in 1911.