I shall look forward to The Observer's reply next Sunday
to the Daily Telegraph's comments on The Observer's announcement last Sunday of its Foreign Service in 1947. The Sunday paper has mobilised an impressive list of contributors who will send it news from various foreign capitals—as indeed, most Sunday and daily papers could do—and explains that the new arrangement is made possible in part because the ownership of The Observer has been transferred to a Trust "which utilises profits for this purpose." What, asks the Telegraph, does this mean? The question has its point, for the statement as it stands does not in fact bear any very obvious meaning. " Profits " normally indicate the balance of revenue over expenditure, and the cost of a foreign service is clearly ex- penditure. What then are the " profits " that are to be used for this purpose? The meanink may, of course, be that so much is spent on the foreign service that accounts just balance and no profits are left; but that is not the natural interpretation of "profits are utilised for this purpose."
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