KING GEORGE AND THE GUTTER PRESS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 916, 10 November 1910, Page 3

KING GEORGE AND THE GUTTER PRESS.

Mr Joseph Watson, who was Reuter’s special correspondent with King George when he visited Australia in 1901, has contributed to the Revue de Paris an article on his Majesty and his tour, in which he says : —'The colonial press is admirably conducted, and maintains the best traditions of British journalism. But in a certain colonial city there was a ‘ gutter journal,’ which, throwing' decency to the winds, published on the occasion ol the Royal visit a series of articles the reverse of complimentary to the Prince, or, rather, his ancestors, for, finding nothing to say against his Royal Highness, the writer had revived all the scandalous gossip he could scrape together concerning those of his predecessors who had borne the name of George. In the course of conversation during dinner, to which I had the honour to be invited when the Ophir was midway between Capetown and Quebec, the Prince asked me point-blank whether I had seen the articles in question. Somewhat embarrassed, I replied that I had indeed seen them, but that in my humble opinion no selt-respecting person had paid the slightest attention to them. ‘ But I have read them all,’ said his Royal Highness, ‘ and I have kept them pasted in a scrapbook.’ He added, ‘ The Ministers came to see me about them, and proposed to suppress the paper; but I immediately ■ replied, ‘ Certainly not ; I won’t hear of it. That would ouly give the beggars the advertisement they want.” Mr Watson referred to Sydney Truth, the purveyor of filth, that was once described by a well-known Australian divine as the ‘‘ Devil’s chief instrument in Australia.”