Etiquette in Fleet Street • , Extracts from and references
to Sir Compton Mackenzie's article about' the Edinburgh conspiracy trial have been plentiful in the Scottish Press since it appeared in the Spectator last week; in every case the normal journalistic practice of acknowledging the Source of the material` was observed. The Beaverbrook Press appears to be less punctilious in these matters. On Saturday evening the Sunday Express rang me up, twice, about two paragraphs which appeared in last week's " Spectator's. Notebook "; these described how Mr. Peregrine Pollen, an Oxford undergraduate, emulated Henry Kingsley's feat of running, riding and rowing a mile in fifteen minutes. Could I (the great newspaper first of all inquired) tell them the young gentleman's real name ? I said it was Peregrine Pollen. The Sunday Express registered scepticism, asked various other questions which I couldn't answer and rang off. In the middle of dinner they telephoned again; could I put them in touch with any photographs of the event ? I said that I could not, and asked whether, if they used the story, they would make any acknowledgement to the Spectator. "I expect so, old boy," said the Sunday Express, without much conviction. Next morning the story of an event already ten days old appeared in print for the second time; apart from slightly garbling all the facts, the Sunday Express stuck closely to, but made no mention of, the Spectator's version of what occurred. Though alway.s keen on doing good by stealth, I hope—for it is a bore being rung up during dinner—that the Sunday Express will not often feel the need to lift paragraphs from these notes to fill its news columns. Here at any rate is one whose transit to oblivion is unlikely to be delayed at the weekend.
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