ABSTRACT
When, on one occasion, Kingsley Martin encountered Lord Beaverbrook in the Savoy, Beaverbrook shouted to him, ‘I've got power – you've got power. I've got the power of suggestion to millions.’ This provoked Martin into ruminating on the power of the press lords; and he concluded that Beaverbrook's excited cry was justified only if ‘influence’ were substituted for ‘power’. Such power as Beaverbrook enjoyed, Martin believed, only existed when Beaverbrook sought to exercise it behind the scenes, as he did when Lloyd George supplanted Asquith as prime minister in 1916; and it depended on Beaverbrook's connections with Bonar Law, which enabled him to ‘pull strings’. But he was quite wrong in thinking that newspapers could wield political power; for, try as he might, Beaverbrook could not foist empire free trade on Britain, nor could he secure the dismissal of Stanley Baldwin from the premiership. 1
