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12. At the first meeting of the Sub-Committee, on the 16th June, 1910, certain verbal amendments in the draft Bill of 1908 were agreed to. There was also some discussion regarding a proposal by the General Staff to establish a Joint Naval and Military Bureau to deal with the issue of information to the Press in time of war. The meeting was then adjourned with the view of obtaining, through the medium of Mr. Sydney Brooks, who had volunteered his services, the opinion of the Press in regard to the Bill as redrafted by the Committee.
Some five months later Mr. Brooks reported that he had interviewed seventeen editors of the leading newspapers, and that the reception which the Press might be expected to accord to a Bill for its control in time of emergency was not favourable
Owing partly to this deadlock with the press, and partly to other causes, the Sub- Committee, as originally constituted, was not reassembled.
Action by the Admiralty and War Office.
13. In connection with the disclosures made in 1911, which have been referred to in paragraph 5 of this Report, the Secretary of State for War commissioned Mr. Brade, the Assistant Secretary, War Office, to enter into informal negotiations with the dominant press interests with the view of arriving at some friendly arrange- ment for regulating the publication of naval and military news the dissemination of which might be contrary to public interest. Mr. Brade's negotiations were conducted with the proprietors rather than with the editors, and with the result that the Committee of Federations of Newspaper Owners consented to appoint a Committee, representative of their interests, to discuss the matter with members of the Admiralty and War Office.
14. Conferences were accordingly held at the Admiralty in August and October 1912, which were attended by representatives of the two departments chiefly interested and by nominees of the four associations, comprising, as the Sub-Committee are assured, the whole of the newspaper owners of the United Kingdom and by a representative of the Newspaper Society, and an arrangement was arrived at
It was agreed that a Joint Standing Committee composed of Admiralty and of War Office officials and of representatives of these five newspaper organizations should be instituted forthwith, and that, upon reference to it by either of the Departments, this Committee should be empowered to decide what information should be withheld from publication by the Press, and that the Press would accept and act upon every such decision. While agreeing, on behalf of the Press, that the publication of informa- tion of a secret or confidential character relating to naval and military subjects should thus be liable to prohibition, the Press members stipulated that the Joint Committee should not be used as a medium for the dissemination of false information, or for the purpose of stifling criticisms of policy, or, except in really important cases where national interests were at stake, for the restriction of news. They also made repeated representations on a point, disregard of which, they urged, would jeopardize the continuance of any friendly arrangement. They pressed most strongly the importance of avoiding favouritism in the distribution of news to journals; all papers should be treated on an equality without distinction made by any authority.
The organization thus set up discussed at subsequent meetings the provision of means to prevent the publication of information which it was obviously dangerous to make known, but which from its nature or from the circumstances in which it was brought to the notice of a paper the Department concerned might not be able to refer beforehand to the Committee. It was agreed that editors should refer to the Department concerned any information thus received from outside sources the publication of which might reasonably be supposed to be prejudicial to the public interest, and should, according to the advice or explanation received from the Department, either modify the information or withhold it altogether from publication. These agreements have been notified to the Press at large, with the full authority, expressly stated, of their representatives on the Joint Committee.
Proceedings of the Sub-Committee in 1912.
15. The amicable understanding in progress between the representatives of the Services and the Press appeared to offer a favourable opportunity for the renewal of
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