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Sir Graham Greene reminded the meeting of the stage in their negotiations which had been reached at the meeting of the 13th August, and invited Mr. Parke to make a statement as to the progress which he and his colleagues had been able to make with their respective constituent federations and societies.
Mr. Parke said that they had all communicated severally with their federations, and as the result he was able to say, that those present had authority to represent their associations, and thus collectively they were representative of all the newspaper interests in the United Kingdom concerned with the question which they were dealing with. He might add that he himself was the representative of all the London papers including The Times and the Pall Mall Gazette whom he had consulted previously in this matter. They were empowered to agree from time to time, as might be decided by that committee, to withhold from publication in the Press information which at times of emergency it might be against the public interest to make known.
Sir Graham Greene asked whether the Press representatives with whom he and his colleagues, as official representatives, would work in conjunction, would thus consist of those present representing the five societies, i.e., the Newspaper Proprietors Association (London), the Northern and Southern Newspaper Owners Federations, the Newspaper Society, and the Irish Newspaper Society.
Sir George Toulmin said that that was so and that the committee would also include Mr. Robbins, the Manager of the Press Association, who, in addition to the interests concerned with the distribution of news to practically the whole of the Press in the United Kingdom, represented for the present purpose all the other news agencies, including Reuters. Mr. Robbins would also act as secretary to the Press representatives on the committee and would work the machinery for giving effect to any decisions come to as the result of the deliberations of the committee. In the event of circumstances arising in which urgent action would have to be taken, Mr. Robbins would be empowered to represent the non-official members pending their being assembled -which would be done with all convenient speed. The Press representatives would be the individuals then present, until any change was made by the constituent federations, but in case of need it might be as well that each should be able to send a deputy if he were unable to attend a meeting himself. Changes of this kind would be notified to Mr. Brade by Mr. Robbins as they occurred.
Sir Graham Greene said that these arrangements would meet the requirements perfectly, and he hoped that this joint committee would be a means of facilitating comin- munication between the Admiralty and the War Office and the Press, not only in war, but also in peace in cases such as those of the gunnery trials on H.M.S. and the embarkation exercises at Southampton which were the subject of negotiations 'Edinburgh' between the respective departments and the Newspaper Society.
Mr. Scott expressed a hope that the committee would not be used as a medium for the dissemination of false news, as he thought that such a use of the committee for the purpose of deceiving the public would destroy confidential relations between the Press and the departments. After a brief discussion this was agreed to.
In conclusion, it was arranged that Mr. Brade, on behalf of the official members, would be the medium of communication between them and the Press representatives, just as Mr. Robbins would be on behalf of the latter, and it was also agreed that Mr. Brade and Mr. Robbins would confer further on the subject of the means to be employed for communicating between the Press and the committee, &c., and they would consult the authorities at the General Post Office as might be required. The result would be embodied in a general scheme of procedure.
Sir Graham Greene and Mr. Brade, on behalf of the Admiralty and the War Office, respectively, undertook that any necessary expense incurred in circulating to the Press official decisions which the committee might arrive at, would be defrayed by the State.
We have thus succeeded in launching an organization which will at least provide considerable support to the scheme of precautionary measures which forms part of our system of military preparation, and which will be equally useful in the event of a pre-precautionary period being declared. It may be remarked that in the record of the negotiations above, there is no closely drawn definition of the scope of the new committee's powers and functions. This is not unintentional. So far as my observation goes, the Press interests have been suspicious all along, and I am given to understand, privately, that there has not been complete unanimity amongst these interests as to the extent to which they could safely pledge themselves. I have accordingly confined myself, when explaining our objects, to pointing out the need for the organization in the cases of a resort to the precautionary measures of defence, and of
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