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Press: An effective antidote to social maladies It is a great pleasure to have the honour of responding to the toast of the Press of India, Burma and Ceylon. Personally I hate public speaking but to a newspaper proprietor the privilege of being asked to reply to something complimentary to newspapers is such a refreshing experience that it seemed too good to refuse. As a representative
of Ceylon, I felt somewhat apprehensive as to the reception I might
get. To judge from the publicity Ceylon has received in the English
Press of late I thought I might be regarded either as a politician
of the most sinister kind or a germ carrier of plague and pestilence. Some months
ago I noticed that Ceylon was described in an English paper as the
Island of Seven Plagues. I cannot remember what the plagues were.
I certainly do not intend to ask His Excellency Sir Reginald Stubbs
to prompt me as he might possibly suggest that the Press of Ceylon
was one of them. But even Sir Reginald will admit that there are
worse plagues than the Press. Even though newspapers are occasionally known to cause local inflammation in the body politic, they are an effective antidote to more devastating maladies, of which public ignorance and prejudice, and the hardening of the heart and also the head in both democracies and bureaucracies are not the least among them. It is not unreasonable to believe that the nations of Europe at this moment would be suffering less from hot heads and cold feet if there had been a free and more responsible press in some of the countries involved in the International tangle. When we turn
to the East we see vast communities emerging into the light of democratic
ideals -- a light at first dazzling, at times illusory and often
dangerously blinding to politicians and to the people themselves
unless protected by a free intelligent and responsible press. To those of
us who are associated with the Press in Eastern countries, it is
gratifying indeed to have the encouragement we have had tonight
by the presence of so many distinguished guests and by speeches
we have listened to. We are particularly
grateful to Sir Thomas Catto and Sir Rodevick Jones for proposing
the toast and supporting us. When in the
future we proprietors study our balance sheets and find that only
trifling dividends if any can be paid we shall have to recall the
speech of Sir Thomas. As an Industrial
Leader closely in touch with public life, he has so well reminded
us that sound journalism is still an institution worth working for
particularly in the East where public opinion, public welfare as
well as trade between individuals and trade between country and
country can be fostered to no small extent by the Press. Personally I shall take back with me to Ceylon very happy recollections of this evening and of an occasion I should have been sorely disappointed to have missed.
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