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follows:-The Army Council addressed a letter to the secretary of the Society stating briefly the proposals for the exercises and inviting the services of the Society in bringing to the notice of the representatives of the Press the Council's opinion that it would not be to the public interest that descriptive reports or details of the embarkation should be published, &c., &c. The Society forwarded this to between 400 and 500 news- papers throughout the country* with a covering letter, in which it was "hoped that the suggested co-operation of the Press in the manner indicated will be favourably received by the Society's members." The Council of the Society had no title to ask for more than the good will of the Press in furthering an object of public concern. The Press owes them no allegiance in such matter.

Consequently, The Times' advice was followed, and I got into touch with and attended a meeting of the Empire Press Union. The result was to show that the Union could not help, at any rate in its present state of organization. Colonial and Indian interests are represented in the Union, but some of these are not themselves well organized, at least, for purposes such as those now in question, and others are not organized at all. The Canadian Press has no organization and that in South Africa has one of limited scope. On the other hand, in India, the Press is entirely under the control of the Government.

A suggestion was, however, made at the meeting to the effect that I should attend a meeting of another body, viz., the Joint Committee of Federations of Newspaper Owners of the United Kingdom, which was to be held shortly afterwards. This I did, and again explained the object of our endeavours. The discussion which followed showed that there was every disposition to assist, the only points on which hesitation was expressed being the possibility that an agreement on the part of the Press to co-operate for the purpose indicated might lead to interference in cases where the need for silence was not really important, and might involve them in undertakings to accept the repression of Press criticisms of policy in regard to our relations with foreign Powers, and might favour the revival of proposals for a Press Bill such as had been rejected in the past.

In due course, I received an intimation that the following had been recorded in the minutes of the meeting :-

"

Mr. R. Brade, of the War Office, who had been invited to attend and explain the views of the authorities, informed the meeting that it was proposed to form a small standing committee consisting of representatives of the War Office and the Admiralty, and, possibly, of the Home Office, the Foreign Office, the Board of Trade, and the Government of India. It was suggested that a corresponding committee should be formed of the newspapers, and that the two bodies should co-operate with a view to preventing the publication of naval and military intelligence, when such publication would be likely to prove prejudicial to the interests of the country.

"

After discussing these proposals, the meeting resolved to act upon them, and it was agreed that a committee of various organizations should be formed and that a preliminary meeting should be held later on, in order to arrange a permanent order of procedure.

At this stage a meeting of Admiralty and War Office representatives was held at which I gave information as to the progress of the negotiations and at which we discussed the necessity for including in the official committee representatives of other departments. It was agreed that we should endeavour to arrange an early meeting with the Press representatives, and for the moment and until superior authority was obtained not include any other departments.

On the 13th August, 1912, a meeting of official and Press representatives was held at the Admiralty. The following is the record of the proceedings as prepared by me for official purposes, and accepted as correct by those present.

The meeting was attended by-

Sir Graham Greene, Secretary of the Admiralty.

Brigadier-General H. Wilson, Director of Military Operations.

Mr. Brade, Assistant Secretary of the War Office.

Lieut.-Colonel Macdonogh, R.E., General Staff (War Office).

Sir George Toulmin, M.P., representing the Newspaper Society.

Mr. J. Š. R. Phillips, representing the Federation of Northern Newspaper

Owners.

• The Times was dealt with direct from the War Office.

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