A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
LORD CAMROSE (once Sir William Berry), having acquired The Morning Post, has announced his acquisi- tion, kept his own counsel regarding his intentions and gone off on holiday. The deal is of the highest interest, but for knowledge as to the future of the Post we shall apparently have to wait till August 27th or later. There have been deals like this before in Fleet Street, but they have all (e.g., in the case of the Morning Leader, the Daily Chronicle, the West- minster Gazette) meant absorption by a rival organ. Is the Morning Post to be amalgamated with Lord Camrose's Daily Telegraph ? The official announcement would suggest not, for the purchaser is in due course to announce his inten- tions regarding the Post " and his plans for its future con- duct." That seems plainly to imply personal immortality, or at any rate personal survival. But can papers so similar, but differing as much in policy as Sir Henry Page Croft differs from Lord Baldwin, be driven in double harness by the same pair of hands ? Well, we shall see. The disappear- ance of the Post would be a grave loss to British journalism, for in its narrow corner of the political world it displays ability, pungency (thanks largely to the brilliant pen of its chief leader-writer, Mr. Ian Colvin), and in many depart- ments real distinction ; and it never permits its political views, pronounced as they are, to impart bias to its news columns. The Post, founded in 1772, is the oldest of existing London daily papers, but not by much, The Times following in 1785, and the Morning Advertiser in 1798. Lloyd's List is older than any of them, but it was not a daily in its early days, and the Public Ledger has not had a continuous indi- vidual existence.
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