ABSTRACT

The Press Bureau had eventually closed at the end of April 1919, unlamented by the Press, but Government Departments quickly realised it had been very useful to them as the vehicle for issuing information. They had done this pre-war through the News Agencies, but now saw there was more to the interface with the Press than just handing out official communiqués. The India Office suggested keeping something like the Bureau as ‘some small office . . . to act as a channel between the Government Departments and the newspapers.’ 55 When the Government had sounded out the Press about what might best replace the PB, Burnham thought there should be a special Ministry charged with such matters, but other proprietors were very much against what they saw would inevitably become not just a department for disseminating what the Government did want to appear, but also for concealing what it did not. The Government decided ultimately to deal with the London newspapers individually and direct, and with the rest of the Press through the PA. 56