The Beaver's World

Lord Beaverbrook is Britain's most brilliant newspaper publisher. His principal paper, the Daily Express (circ. 3,850,000), is the largest in the world. Brief, colorful, clear, the Express is also, technically, one of the best newspapers in the world. Its editorial opinions are no wiser or more enlightened than Beaver-brook's own: the paper is his mouthpiece.

Because of the Daily Express' tremendous circulation, its daily report on the world colors the attitudes of millions of Britons. Thus, the opinions of The Beaver, quite differently from Churchill's,* are of prime importance to the U.S. What world do readers see as reported in the Express ?

Last week John Osborne, chief of TIME'S London bureau, reported on what a cover-to-cover reader of the Express for the past several weeks would have been led to believe:

P: The conflict with Russia is mainly a contest for power between the U.S.S.R. and the U.S. Britain can and should stay out of it.

P: War is unlikely and unnecessary. If it comes, it will be more the U.S.'s fault than Russia's.

P: Russia is not on the offensive. The U.S. is.

P: Russia is calm. The U.S. is hysterical.

P: Communism is bad but is not a threat to Britain.

P: The new alliance between Britain and four European powers (France, Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxemburg) is a mistake; Britain should abandon it. Britons should have as little as possible to do with other Europeans, who are their inferiors.

P: Marshall Plan aid is bad. Britain does not need it and should reject it. It should rely on itself and the Empire; not on the U.S. and Europe. ("This proud old land," said an Express leader column, "appears in the role of a village drunkard, swaggering in a pub, insisting on standing his round--but never able to pay for the children's milk next morning.")

P: Britain should get out of Palestine.

P: All government controls are bad. Most are unnecessary.

P: All Socialists are bad, or foolish, or both.

P: Most Tories are good. But some are bad and foolish, having lost faith in free enterprise and/or the Empire.

P: Britain's present troubles are largely the fault of 1) the Socialists; 2) the bad Tories. Those troubles will vanish if Britain 1) throws out the Socialists; 2) elects good Tories; 3) works hard; 4) relies on itself and the Empire.

Pro or Con? Though Lord Beaver-brook's opinions color much of the news in the Express, the paper also reports many events that contravene his editorial views. And in The Beaver's Evening Standard, Cartoonist David Low goes right on poking fun at The Beaver's ruggedly individualistic stand. But Lord Beaverbrook's strictures on the U.S. have convinced many a Briton that the Daily Express is consciously and consistently anti-American. Actually it is friendly toward the U.S., but hostile to much of its policy and actions. The total impression the Express gives is that what the U.S. is doing is pretty silly, unnecessary and somehow dangerous to the well-being of the world.

Truth or Travesty? When Lord Beaverbrook was shown Osborne's analysis, he snapped: "An absolute travesty of the truth. [It does] not in the least represent the attitude of the Daily Express." And to prove it The Beaver rushed into print an expression of his genuine liking for the U.S.:

"Never, never has this newspaper questioned the high ideals, the noble motives which inspire American policy and of which Britain, more than any other nation, has been the beneficiary . . .

"These bountiful acts [the American loan to Britain and the Marshall Plan], however mistaken from Britain's viewpoint, will indeed bring to the United States an immeasurable return in the affection and admiration of the world to which she gives moral and material leadership."

From two other British journalists, Britons last week got an earful about the U.S.

P: Back from a U.S. visit, Editor Frank Owen of Lord Rothermere's super-Tory Daily Mail told an audience of London clubmen that "the war scare which is raging there is not only terrific, but almost terrifying. Americans are in a bigger flap than our Foreign office was last week [over the tension in Berlin]. If someone were suddenly to announce over the microphone that Red Army paratroops were dropping on Manhattan, there would be such a stampede of the human herd as had never been seen before."

P: Editor Kingsley Martin wrote in his pinko New Statesman & Nation: "People in this country, where our press only 'tends toward monopoly,' have as little knowledge as most people in the U.S. itself of the degree to which the American press and radio is under the absolute control of a handful of big proprietors and their business associates."

Martin had been reading 1000 Americans, by Leftist Press-baiter George Seldes, a collection of truths, half-truths and untruths about the U.S. press and industry.

* Both are "imperialists," but Churchill is internationalist, Beaverbrook isolationist.

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