466 Viscount Burnham [Jan. 27, 



Mr. H. Gr. Wells and Mr. Arnold Bennett. All these gentlemen 

 write not what are now called " editorials " but articles in the news 

 pages of various journals, so that for that reason only it is small 

 wonder that it is the news features that tend to count for much more 

 in the economy of the press. This tendency, obvious enough at the 

 present day, is in reality no new thing. The great Delane, whether 

 consciously or unconsciously, recognised it, for we are told that after 

 one of his dinners in the best society — and it is recounted of him 

 that one season he accomplished the gargantuan feat of dining out a 

 hundred nights in succession — he went down to his office and sat 

 there till four o'clock of the morning, bringing into accord and con- 

 sistency the whole of the news and editorial columns of his paper. 

 It would pass the strength and capacity of any man— even of the 

 "Thunderer" of his day — to do it now, that is to say, to co-ordinate, 

 as it would be called, the complete edition to be published urbi et orbi. 



This brings me to another point. It is said sometimes that no 

 editor ought to touch the news columns of his paper, but there is 

 no doubt that an editor like Delane did deal, and deal drastically, 

 with his news columns. To garble news, as it is called, is quite 

 another matter, but in any wide prevalence of garbling news in the 

 reputable press of this country I altogether disbelieve. News may 

 be, and often is, " tendencious," and the " tendenciousness " may be 

 the result of deliberate deception practised by way of propaganda on 

 a credulous correspondent for political or financial ends. In such an 

 instance the editor is obviously right in altering the copy. Then there 

 is the law of libel, which has a varying importance in different coun- 

 tries and at different times ; there is the censorship in time of war 

 here, and it may be at any time abroad by administrative order, with 

 all its pains and penalties either in a court-martial or a court-civiL 

 Upon the shoulders of the editor and his sub-editors falls the full 

 responsibility of taking such precautions as will save their enter- 

 prise from the huge damages of modern law-suits or the rigours of 

 imprisonment. 



The war put the Press under the iron hand of military authority 

 at home as well as on the various fronts, though by the different 

 methods appropriate to British law and custom. Newspaper editors 

 were accorded considerable licence, and after the first few months,, 

 when an agreement had been reached between the Prime Minister 

 and the Press at a famous Conference held in Downing Street in 

 February 1915, they were treated on a common basis of patriotic 

 confidence. Cases, however, arose in connection with various papers, 

 and the arm of the law descended upon the editor and publisher. 

 Under the Defence of the Realm Act — commonly called Dora — 

 the Government could either bring those responsible before the 

 magistrate in a police court, or by order of the General Officer 

 Commanding the District could seize the plant and machinery and 

 prevent publication for such time as he had the sole right to- 



