AFTER DINNER SPEECH

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21988, 24 June 1933, Page 15

AFTER DINNER SPEECH

THE. PRESS, THE WORLD. AND RELIGION ARCHBISHOP OF: CANTERBURY. (From Oue Own Correspondent!) LONDON, May 12. _The toast, " Journalism,'’ at the annual dinner of the Newspaper Press Fund (presided over by Mr John Walter) was entrusted to the Archbishop of Canterbury, whose remarks occasioned roars of merriment. . .... ; v "I owe.it to you,” he saidj “to confer that I have often indulged in a dream, in which I saw myself, to my infinite satisfaction, once before I dfed, and before there was any time for reply or retaliation, addressing the assembled editors and reporters of the press, and telling them exactly what I thought about them.—(Laughter and applause.) , Is it possible that my dream is meant to be fulfilled this evening? Alas, no. Mere courtesy prevents; I am your guest. “ROYALTY AND BARRIE.” “ I will, however, make my obeisance to the power of the press. It is the most direct,_ all-pervading and effective power in national life. I would make an appeal to it to temper that ppwer with mercy. “Happy is the man who when he speaks in public is always reported verbatim. There was very tew left except royalty and Sir James Barrie.—(Laughter.) Happy, much happier, is the man who either never speaks in public, at all or if he does is never reported. But the man for whom I ask your sympathy tonight is the man who, like myself, is constantly speaking, is almost always reported, and never reported verbatim. Such a man is at the mercy of the reporter as to what he puts in and then of that soulless creature, the sub-editor, as to what he chooses to put out.—(Laughter.) "If I make an indiscretion in speaking I know, that it is the one thing that is'certain to be reported. Let me give a pathetic illustration. Once in the early days of the war in the course of a highly, not to say flamboyant, patriotic speech, I was moved by a passing impulse to refer to _ some of the finer qualities of the Kaiser’s character. Immediately moat of the reporters fled from the room and rushed to the telephone. The indiscretion went to all parts of the world, and on my devoted, head for weeks and months there poured a deluge of abuse.—(Laughter.) Was it really necessary to report that passing and irrelevant indiscretion?” 1, HONOUR OF THE PRESS. Again, Dr Lang continued, the other day when he was speaking on the simple theme of church music, he remarked without any desire to be reported that he did not think there were half a dozen hymns, he would care to sing. Numbers of telephone messages, letters, and requests followed for interviews on “What Are the Archbishop’s Favourite Hymns? ” t (Laughter.) “ The result is that while ± may think I am speaking as Mr Garvin writes, like a prophet, I am reported' to all tne world as if I speak like a buffoon. When I was in America I was asked by "a reporter whether the reason the two Archbishops were not too keenly in favour of prohibition was because they each had whisky toddy every night. Tonight, I am thinking of the press at its best and truest, and I know that the honour of the press can be trusted. I admire the respect which the press pays to religion, and express the hbpe that in these anxious times the church and the press will look upon each other as allies.” . , He did not think he had ever made an appeal to thf honour of the press In which he had found that the . appeal failed, even in the United States,/where journalism was very spicy and irresponsible—(Laughter arid cheers.l