Political Journals Banned During Fuel Shortage

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5329, 15 February 1947, Page 5

Political Journals Banned During Fuel Shortage

LONDON. February 14 JThe long and unhroken record of publieation of sorfte of Britain.'s oldest 'ind most influential political weeklies is endangered by Ihe fuel crisis ban on the publieation of periodieals which are not prc Juced on daily newspaper presses. They are the^conomist and the' Spectator, and the less venerable but widely-known Tribune, New Statesmen and Nation and Time and Tide. The Times puhlished an all-party letter from several Memhers of Parliament ineluding Mr. Seymour Coclcs (Labour)., Mr. Anthony Eden (Consevvative), and Mr. Clement Davies (Lahpur), asking that special exemption he made in favour of these five. The Newspaper Proprietors' Association opposes any special exemption on the groun-ds that a number of othei' weeklies and periodieals could make an equally good case.

The Evening News quotes tlie editor of the Economist, Mr. Geoft'rey Crowther, as saying that, if exemption is made, his journal will be published even if it means expulsion from the Newspaper Proprietors' Association. All periodicals_ will appear this weelc-end, but after that the ban will apply for at least a fortnight. Feveral daily newspapers editorially expressed the opinion that five political journals should be .permitted to continue in view of their value at times like the present, • and the suggestioil has been made that some dailies may throw open their columns for publieation of some of the weeklies' features, if the hau is not lifted. The Spectator has maintained unhroken publieation since 1828 and the Economist since 1943.

The Daily Mail announced that in view of the fact that all weekly publicatiohs had been suspended for the next two weeks as a result of the fuel emergency restrictions, it had offered its entire leader page for one day a week to The Spectator. The New Statesman aiid Nation announced that several of its features would appear in print next week through the courtesy of the daily and Sunday papers.