London, Sept. 9.
Mrs. Asquith is still outpouring her life views and recollections the "Sunday Times" which has undeniably "scored" and so with a solatium of £10,000 has she. In addition there are the American Tights and the profits of the book which will when printed be volun ruinous. All autobiographies leading people are interesting but Margot is a little too intima. We do not greatly feel her delicacy in trotting out her love affairs at such great length and we do not envy those of the living whom she} [praises since there is more than a tendency tu slobber over friendships when she made them which—quite conceivably—was. rare.
One fears, however, that the lure of the highly paid. newspaper article is nowadays irresistible. Mr. Churchill writes frankly for money. His contributions appear in the Harmsworth papers which usually pay best—though the inelina tion of all journals is to skin the ordinary contributor whose rates ihave even fallen since the war and to throw money away on "name." Look at Mr. Bottomley—he writes an article a week for the "Sunday Pictorial"—at so it is understood £150 a contribution, exactly the same sum as is paid to Mr. Churchill for any article, though the "London" sometime ago paid him a good deal more. Kipling seldom of more than a shilling a line for is work for the papers and the greatest litterateur we possess would not reap as good a harvest as the man with a collection of very personal anecdotes. Nearly all "Members of Parliament are paid by the papers for any articles they write—even if they have no pretensions to literary finish. or aboli The usual price is £5 to £10 a column; indeed some canvass "On their own" and write offering articles on pet themes at so much a thousand. Most of the Labour Party do the same and some Mem bers are oe ready to take the cash and let the credit go—by employing some journalist to compile the contribution after which he receives a commission, Tae Hon. Mr. Cloud Severn Colonial Secretary, Hongkong, is returning to the Colony in Decem-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.