The British Press in the Formative Early Cold War Years

Koutsopanagou, Gioula

doi:10.1057/978-1-137-55155-9_4

The British Press in the Formative Early Cold War Years

Gioula Koutsopanagou⁵

Chapter
First Online: 02 February 2020

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Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in the History of the Media ((PSHM))

Abstract

The Second World War had a profound effect on British journalism, more far-reaching even than the war of 1914–1918. Once again, newspapers were put under pressure to keep boosting public morale and to promote national unity. But they did so under new constraints and restrictions, some of which stretched into the postwar years.

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Notes

1.
Murray, George. The Press and the Public: Story of the British Press Council. Southern Illinois University Press, 1972, 54.
2.
See Brown, Lucy. Victorian News and Newspapers. Oxford University Press, 1985.
3.
Cudlipp, Hugh. Publish and be Damned! The Astonishing Story of the Daily Mirror. London: Andrew Dakers, 1953, 177–187.
4.
DEFE53/4, DEFE5353/5, Private and Confidential Letter to Editors, quoted in Sadler, Pauline. National Security and the D-Notice System. Aldershot: Ashgate/Dartmouth, 2001, 37.
5.
Jenks, British Propaganda and News Media, 53.
6.
Newsprint rationing began in 1939 and lasted until the end of 1958 (Gerald, James Edward. The British Press Under Government Economic Controls. University of Minnesota Press, 1957, 190). For protest against the shortage of newsprint, see Andrews, W.L. Cramping the Press. Fortnightly (June–July 1948): 391–397. Andrews was editor of the Yorkshire Post and chairman of the Joint Editorial Committee of the Newspaper Society and the Guild of British Newspaper Editors.
7.
See, for example, A.P. Wadsworth’s views in Newspaper Circulations, 1800–1954. Paper, 9 March 1955, 28–30. The steady rise of the popular press is shown in his classic graphs on the circulation of the papers, 31–39.
8.
These tendencies in the press had already been noted in a report by the PEP broadsheet entitled Planning, in Report on the British Press, vol. 5, nos. 118, 119, 120 (1938).
9.
Koss, Stephen. The Rise and Fall of the Political Press in Britain, vol. 2. The University of North Carolina Press, 1984, 638.
10.
For some thoughts on the Commission, see PEP, no. 301 (8 August 1949) on Population and the Press, The Royal Commission Reports, 45–67.
11.
McDonald, Iverach. The History of the Times: Struggles in Peace and War 1939–1966, vol. 5, 1984, 331–332.
12.
For R. Barrington-Ward, see Griffiths, Dennis (ed.). Encyclopedia of the British Press. The Macmillan Press, 1922, 92; The Times, Barrington-Ward’s obituary, 1 March 1948.
13.
The Times, leader, After the Conference, 4 November 1943.
14.
The Times, leader, The Unity of Europe, 14 July 1945.
15.
McDonald, Iverach. The History of the Times, 117–118.
16.
Ibid.
17.
E.H. Carr’s views were expressed in a series of books and lectures, notably Conditions of Peace (1942), The Soviet Impact on the Western World (1946), The New Society (1951). In 1945, he started to write his monumental History of Soviet Russia: His What Is History? was widely published (Macmillan 1961; Pelican 1964 and 1987, 2nd edn; Penguin 1990), DNB, 1981–85, 75–76.
18.
McDonald, The History of The Times, 51–52, 168–169; Griffiths, Encyclopedia of the British Press, 568; Obituary. 1981. The Times, 25 April.
19.
McDonald, The History of The Times, 150.
20.
Ibid., 166.
21.
McLachlan, Donald. In the Chair: Barrington-Ward of the Times, 1927–1948. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1971, 259; McDonald, The History of the Times, 68.
22.
McDonald, The History of the Times, 196.
23.
Koss, Stephen. The Rise and Fall of the Political Press in Britain, vol. 2. The University of North Carolina Press, 1984, 554.
24.
Ayerst, David. Guardian, Biography of a Newspaper. Collins, 1971, 562–565.
25.
Manchester Guardian, leader, 6 March 1946.
26.
Ayerst, Guardian. Biography of a Newspaper, 593, 596.
27.
Ibid., 572, 574.
28.
Voigt, in his book Unto Caesar: On Political Tendencies in Modern Europe. London: Constable, 1938, launched in a Biblical prose a religious crusade against communism (see p. 71).
29.
Pringle, John Douglas. Have Pen: Will Travel. London: Chatto & Windus, 1973, 15.
30.
Ayerst, Guardian. Biography of a Newspaper, 577–578.
31.
Ibid., 582–583.
32.
Ayerst, Guardian. Biography of a Newspaper, 547. For M. Philips Price, see Who Was Who, vol. 7, 639.
33.
Pringle, Have Pen: Will Travel, 35.
34.
For J.D. Pringle, see Who’s Who, 1991, 1490.
35.
Hart-Davis, Duff. The House of the Berrys Built: Inside the Telegraph, 1928–1986. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1990, 119–120.
36.
Of all major politicians, Churchill made use of the press ‘both for income and propaganda’. His principal outlet in the late 1930s used to be the Evening Standard, and when his contract was terminated, he shifted to the Daily Telegraph (Koss, The Rise and Fall, 562).
37.
Daily Telegraph, ‘I. What Aid to Greece and Turkey Means for World Peace’, 12 April 1947; ‘II. Soviet Expansionist Ambitions’, 14 April 1947; ‘III. The Oceans No Longer Isolate America: Facing the Facts of the Post-War World’, 15 April 1947.
38.
FO371/67120, R5997, Mitsides to Miss Sturdee, 28 April 1947; Elisabeth Gilliatt to FO, 29 April 1947; Roberts to Northern Department, 13 May 1947; Minutes by McCarthy, Selby, Colville, 16–20 May 1947; FO to Gilliatt, 30 May 1947.
39.
Koss, The Rise and Fall, 464, 465; Hart-Davis, The House of the Berrys Built, 49, 124.
40.
Watson, Arthur Ernest (1880–1969). Griffiths, Encyclopedia of the British Press, 584.
41.
Layton, Walter Thomas, first Baron Layton (1884–1966). Griffiths, Encyclopedia of the British Press, 364.
42.
The Press and Its Readers: A Report Prepared by Mass-Observation. London: Art & Technics, 1949, 119.
43.
Barry Papers, 11, Barry to Layton, 14 December 1944 and Layton to Barry, 14 December 1944.
44.
Barry Papers, 10, Cadbury to Barry, 16 December 1942.
45.
Sir Gerald Barry, DNB, 1961–1970, 75–76; 1968; The Times, 22 November 1942?
46.
Barry Papers, 10, Layton to Barry, 23 May 1942.
47.
Wintour, Charles. The Rise and Fall of Fleet Street. London: Hutchinson, 1989, 74.
48.
Beaverbrook Papers, H/123, Roberston to Beaverbrook, 5 November 1947.
49.
Koss, The Rise and Fall, 636.
50.
For A.J. Cummings’ views on the press, see The Press. London: The Bodley Head, 1936, 79–80.
51.
A.J. Cummings (1882–1957), DNB, 1951–1960, 278–279; Andrews, Linton, and H.A. Taylor. Lords and Laborers of the Press: Men Who Fashioned the Modern British Newspaper. Southern Illinois University Press, 1970, 229–242.
52.
Barry Papers, 10, Cadbury to Barry, 16 February 1942.
53.
Beaverbrook Papers, H/131, Roberston to Beaverbrook, 19 October 1948.
54.
Barry Papers, 24, Barber to Barry, undated.
55.
Williams, Francis. Dangerous Estate: The Anatomy of Newspapers, Longmans, 1957, 189.
56.
Ibid., 194.
57.
Percival Cudlipp (1905–1962), DNB, 1961–1970, 251–252. For the history of the Daily Herald, see Lansbury, George. The Miracle of Fleet Street, 1925; Fienburgh, Wilfred. 25 Momentous Years, 1930–1955. Odhams Press, 1955.
58.
Viscount Camrose, British Newspapers and Their Controllers. London: Cassel, 1947, 43.
59.
For Michael Foot, see Hoggart, Simon and David Leigh, Michael Foot: A Portrait. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1981.
60.
See Camrose, British Newspapers and Their Controllers, 37–42; Griffiths, Encyclopedia of the British Press, 183.
61.
Arthur Christiansen, Griffiths. Encyclopedia of the British Press, 154–155.
62.
Christiansen, Arthur. Headlines All My Life. London: Heinemann, 1961, 144.
63.
Beaverbrook Papers, D/479 (undated, unsigned).
64.
Daily Express, Conflict Will Lessen, 19 November 1947.
65.
Taylor, A.J.P. Beaverbrook. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1972, 587.
66.
Ibid., 588.
67.
Foster, Alan Joseph. The British Press and the Origins of the Cold War. PhD diss., Open University, 1987, 50.
68.
Beaverbrook Papers, D/484, D.E. [Daily Express] Group, undated.
69.
Taylor, Beaverbrook, 552, 561, 565.
70.
Ibid., 564.
71.
Beaverbrook Papers, H/114, L.A. Plummer to Roberston, 13 June 1945. See also Taylor, Beaverbrook, 565.
72.
Taylor, Beaverbrook, 579–580.
73.
Daily Mail, Ward Price (Berlin corr.), 21 September 1936.
74.
Camrose, British Newspapers and Their Controllers, 160; Koss, The Rise and Fall, 558, 615.
75.
Beaverbrook Papers, H/122, Robertson to Beaverbrook, 4 March 1947.
76.
Frank Owen, Griffiths, Encyclopedia of the British Press, 450.
77.
Stubbs, John. Appearance and reality: A case study of The Observer and J.L. Garvin, 1914–1942. Chap. 18 in Newspaper History from the seventeenth century to the present day, edited by George Boyce, James Curran and Pauline Wingate, 320–38. London: Constable, 1978.
78.
For The Observer, see Cockett, Richard. David Astor and the Observer. Andre Deutsch, 1991.
79.
The Observer, Britain and the Soviet Union, 30 May 1943.
80.
Quoted in Cockett, David Astor and the Observer, 142.
81.
Philippe Deane Gigantes (or Tsigantes) reported for The Observer and for three Greek papers on the Korean War. See his book, Deane, Philip. I Should Have Died. London: Hamilton, 1976.
82.
Hobson H., P. Knightley, and L. Russell. The Pearl of Days: An Intimate Memoir of the Sunday Times, 1822–1972. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1972, 287.
83.
Ibid., 230.
84.
W.W. Hadley, Griffiths, Encyclopedia of the British Press, 284–285.
85.
Sir Robert Ensor, Griffiths, Encyclopedia of the British Press, 222.
86.
Edwards, Ruth Dudley. The Pursuit of Reason: The Economist, 1843–1993. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 1993, 949–950.
87.
Geoffrey Crowther (1907–1972) DNB, 1971–1980, 199–200.
88.
See the original and the revised second sentence of Article 105 in Edwards, The Pursuit of Reason, 738, and in Camrose, British Newspapers and Their Controllers, 146.
89.
Edwards, The Pursuit of Reason, 758.
90.
The Economist, 10 April 1948.
91.
The Economist, 18 February 1950.
92.
Camrose, British Newspapers and Their Controllers, 148; Griffiths, Encyclopedia of the British Press, 526.
93.
Harris, Wilson. Life So Far. London: Jonathan Cape, 1954, 247.
94.
Ibid., 256.
95.
Ibid., 246.
96.
Ibid., 271–272.
97.
Morris, Benny. The Roots of Appeasement: The British Weekly Press and Nazi Germany During 1930s: The British Weekly Press and Nazi Germany During the 1930s. London: Frank Cass, 1991, 14–15.
98.
Ibid., 294.
99.
Ibid., 237.
100.
Nicolson, Nigel. Portrait of a Marriage. New York: Athenaeum, 1973, 215.
101.
Ibid., 238.
102.
Sir Harold Nicolson, DNB, 1961–1970, 793–796.
103.
FO371/37231, R13589, Minutes by Laskey, 1 January 1943 (sic) [1944].
104.
Tribune, 24 August 1944, 2 February 1946.
105.
Quoted in Morris, The Roots of Appeasement, 24. Martin Papers, memorandum entitled British Foreign Policy in the Thirties by Martin.
106.
Camrose, British Newspapers and Their Controllers, 147–148.
107.
Hyams, Edward. The New Statesman: The History of the First Fifty Years 1913–1963. London: Longmans, 1963, 113.
108.
For B.K. Martin, see Griffiths, Encyclopedia of the British Press, 404; his two volumes of autobiography: Father Figures (1966) and Editor (1968); see also Jones, Mervyn (ed.). Kingsley Martin, Portrait and Self-Portrait. London: Barrie & Jenkins, 1969; Roplh, C.H. Kingsley: The Life, Letters and Diaries of Kingsley Martin. London: V.G. [Victor Gollancz], 1973.
109.
Hyams, The New Statesman, 253.
110.
The New Statesman, Britain and Europe, 25 August 1945.
111.
Hyams, The New Statesman, 280.
112.
The Left Book Club, founded in 1936, aimed ‘to help in the struggle for World Peace and a better social and economic order and against Fascism’. For more details, see Gollancz, Victor. The Left Book Club, The Left Book News, no. 1 (May 1936) and Gollancz, Victor. The Left Book Club, London, 1936.
113.
As editor of the ILP’s New Leader, Brailsford greatly raised the standard of Left-Wing journalism. Hyams, The New Statesman, 201.
114.
For Richard Howard Crossman (1907–1974), see his memoirs, The Diaries of a Cabinet Minister. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1975, and Crossman, R.H.S. The Backbench Diaries of Richard Crossman. London: Hamilton, 1981.
115.
Hyams, The New Statesman, 284.
116.
Reynolds News, 3 August 1947. See also Schneer, Jonathan. Labour’s Conscience: The Labour Left, 1945–51. Boston: Unwin Hyman, 1988, Routledge, 2018, 28–51.
117.
Schneer, Labour’s Conscience, 93–95.
118.
Ibid., 90, 92.
119.
The Union of Democratic Control (UDC) was founded in September 1914 with the aim of securing a new course in diplomatic policy. It demanded the ending of the war by negotiation, and open and democratic diplomacy. After 1918, these aims continued to guide its activities. See Swartz, Martin J. The Union of Democratic Control in British Politics During the First World War. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971.

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Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, Athens, Greece
Gioula Koutsopanagou

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Koutsopanagou, G. (2020). The British Press in the Formative Early Cold War Years. In: The British Press and the Greek Crisis, 1943–1949. Palgrave Studies in the History of the Media. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55155-9_4

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55155-9_4
Published: 02 February 2020
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
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