MR BALDWIN AND THE PRESS

Hokitika Guardian, 2 August 1930, Page 7

MR BALDWIN AND THE PRESS

MASS PRODUCTION IN IDEAS TRUTH AND SLOGANS. LONDON, June 19-. Overeas delegates of the Imperial Press Conference were entertained at dinner on Monday night by the Great Britain' and Northern Ireland delegates. The function was held at the Royal Academy and afterwards a reception was held, when over 1000 guests assembled in the various galleries.

Air Stanley Baldwin was the principal speaker at the dinner. “Your powe,'r,” he told the delegates, “is tremendous. You can promote amity in the Empire and among the nations, and you can promote enmity according to your understanding or suspicion.

“Here in London, the centre of the Etmpire, and the centre, still, of the world— (‘Hear, hear’)—we act as a •seismometer, and no disturbance, however remote, occurs in any part of the world but it is recorded instantaneously here.

“These new channels of communication have been put at your service. Upon you rests the responsibility of what comes to this count,ry and what goes out, and what good report and what evil report may emerge through the waves of the sea and through the waves of the air.

“Your power is tremendous. You can promote amity in the Empire and among nations, and you can promote enmity according as you further understanding or suspicion. But there are great reconciling forces. There : s a long family tradition; there are old-established ideals, of conduct, of decency, and of fair play, and, above all, there is a great literature in the world.—(Cheers.)

“Shall I he presuming if I bog of the children of our blood to write and to preserve the writing of English, because., after all, however beautiful in American ears the American languages may he, we are English, we speak the English .language, or try to, and let us write it.—(Cheers.) We have, moreover, our common sufferings in the Great War.”,

BUILD OR BREAK THE EMPIRE

Speaking as a politician, Mr Baldwin asked the press to make the best and not the worst of them.

“You are,” lie said, “the only reference we have got for the character of the members of the family that' we do no 4 t know. You write the testimonials, and you paint the pictures, and we rely on you, for the trustworthiness of the reports we get. If the reports are false everything goes wrong. You can build the Empire or you can break it. “\\ ? e Uve in an age of slogans and Ynass production, Slogans are dangerous; I am afraid of them, hot for myself, but for the Ehipire. 'Mass production in industry is one thing, but in ideas and opinions it is another thing.—(“Hear hear.”) “There is a, real danger to democracy in the mass appeal to instinct and sentiment and not .to reason. There is a real danger in putting too many trivialities before democracies. A great Empire and a trivial press go ill together.”—(“Hear hear.”)