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experimental work such as the embarkation exercises at Southampton. The great point to secure seemed to be to induce the Press to work together and to work in conjunction with us.

This has been secured, and it is left to the future to develop occasions of usefulness for the committee outside the two classes of cases named. So far, however, nothing has been done or said which will limit the functions of the committee, except that we have promised not to use the machinery for the dissemination of false news, or in cases where there is not real national necessity, or for the purposes of stifling criticism of policy.

As to the further elaboration of the detailed machinery I propose, if approval be given to our proceedings up to this point, to work out a scheme with Mr. Robbins and submit it for approval in due course.

I have referred above in the second paragraph of this memorandum to the helplessness" of the War Office in dealing with certain newspapers last summer. I ought perhaps to explain further that while this expression correctly conveys the situation at the moment when the cases had to be dealt with, and when we had not had time to receive legal advice as to the scope of the new Official Secrets Act, yet the power of the department is really not so meagre as would appear. After the editors' attention had been drawn to their action, I referred the papers to the Treasury Solicitor with the following minute :--

"Our contention is that the publication of these articles is 'prejudicial to the safety and interests of the State.' Assuming that, could proceedings be taken against the publisher under Section I. (c) of the Official Secrets Act, he having by publication

communicated to another person information which might be useful to an enemy?'"

This was referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions, who advised that on certain assumptions as to the correctness of the information communicated by the newspapers then in question, that information was or might be directly or indirectly useful to an enemy within the section of the Act quoted. And from this we have inferred that, in certain circumstances, this Act could be used against a newspaper. And I gather from conversation with Sir Graham Greene that, in a subsequent case in which the Admiralty were concerned, Sir Charles Matthews himself saw an editor and warned him that the Official Secrets Act might be used against him. have a note on our official papers to the effect that the speedy passage of the Act through the House of Commons was due to a general understanding that the new measure was not directed against any new class, but against that at which the former Act was aimed, viz., the spy class, and that to use it against a newspaper merely for publishing news useful to an enemy would amount to a breach of faith with Parliament. But there is no record to this effect in the official versions of the debates.

We

This has a bearing on the point in regard to which I found some considerable uneasiness in certain quarters in the Press. When any reference was made to a revival of a Press Bill there was evidence of hesitancy and perturbation. The matter is before the Sub-Committee of the Committee of Imperial Defence on Press Censorship, and it is not for me to do more here than place on record the impression I received as to the feeling on the subject in certain newspaper circles, where, I ought to say, I received valuable help in negotiating the formation of the Standing Committee. If, however, the Official Secrets Act can be used it seems doubtful whether any further consideration need be given to the terms of a Press Bill.

In conclusion, I might add that the Sub-Committee on Co-ordination of Departmental Action, in its report of the 19th April, 1912, recorded as follows :- The Sub- Committee desire to call attention to the urgency of measures to prevent the publication of naval and military intelligence of value to an enemy, or of a nature calculated to cause popular excitement in the newspapers. They are informed that steps are under consideration with a view to solve this question by friendly arrangement with the Press, &c." At an earlier stage the Sub-Committee had included in a draft report some remarks which gave the War Office representatives the impression that it was intended to represent the Sub-Committee's opinion as being that the difficulties attending any of the measures included under the precautionary period might be expected to arise mainly from the want of restraint of the Press, with a further implied suggestion that this factor in the situation could be dealt with only by some form of statutory control. At their

* The marginal note to the first section is "penalties for spying," but I believe that such notes do not limit in any way the provisions of a Statute.

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