ALTHOUGH THE AUTHORITIES are understandably anxious that press reports should
not stir up racial feeling in North Kensington, they were unwise to go about it in the way they did. The newspapers which assumed, in their reports, that it was a race murder may have been behaving irresponsibly; but this was hardly a sufficient reason for Scotland Yard next day to issue a denial, and to insist that motive was robbery. How can anybody know what the motive was, until those responsible are caught and put on trial? For officialdom to pronounce its own verdict, and to insist on the newspapers printing it, is a dangerous policy, even when it is done with the best of intentions. Crime reporters are in a delicate position; they cannot afford to offend Scotland Yard, for fear of shutting off their chief source of information; and editors consequently are compelled, when the police have a view which they want to put across, to print it whether they believe it or not. But when the view is so obviously designed to allay fears, rather than to give accurate information, it merely throws suspicion on other police pronouncements in general.
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