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core pee ee ~ CONCLUSION ON PART. W: fe yor “339, ‘ keow that Ministers and others have felt a. ‘ red fumours about them that they have contemplated. bringing act or slander in respect of them. I know, tog, that they have refrained. trom, doing so pending my inquiry. I hope, however, that they will not fee} that honour requires them to pursue these matters further. My findings will, ] trust, be accepted by them as a full and sufficient vindication of their good names. It is, I believe, better for the country that these rumours should be buried and that this unfortunate episode. should be closed. 340. Equally I trust that all others will now cease to fepeat these tumours which have been proved so unfounded and untrue: and that newspapers and others will not seek to put names ‘to those: whom I have deliberately left anonymous. For I fear that, if nates are given, human nature being what it is, people will still say ‘ there’s no stnoke without Gre * — a a proposition which in this instance is demonstrably untrue. - © ~*~ 341. This brings me to. the end. It might be thought—indeed it has ‘been , thought—by some that these rumours are a symptom of a decline inthe integrity of public life in this country. I do not believe this to be true. There has been no lowering of standards. But there is this difference to-day. Public men are more vulnerable than they were: and it behoves them, even more than ever, to give no cause for scandal. For if they do, they have to reckon with a growing hazard which has been disclosed in the evidence I have heard. Scandalous information about well-known people has become a marketable commodity. True or false, actual or invented, it can be sold. The greater the scandal the higher the price it commands, If supported by photographs or letters, real or imaginary, all the better. Often enough the sellers profess to have been themselves participants in the discreditable conduct which they seek to exploit. Intermediaries move in, ready to assist the sale and ensure the highest prices. The story improves with the telling. Iti is offered to those hewspapers—there are only a few of them—who deal in this commodity. They vie with one another to buy it. Each is afraid the other will get it first. So they buy it on chance that it will turn out profitable. Sometimes it is no use to them. It is palpably false. At other times it is credible. But ever so, they dare not publish the whole of the information. The law of libel and the rules of contempt of court exert an effective restraint. They publish what they can, but there remains a substantial part which is not fit for publication. This unpublished part goes around by word of mouth. It does not stop in Fleet Street. It goes to Westminster. It crosses the Channel, even the Atlantic and back again, swelling all the time. Yet without the original purchase, it might never have got started on its way... 342. When such deplorable consequences are seem thing that is clear is that something should be done to stop ¢ scandal for reward. The machinery is ready to hand. The Council already in being. 343. Although I have felt it necessary to draw attention te thls matter, I would like to say that I have had the greatest co-operation and assistance * from the newspapers and all concerned with them; and not least from those whose practices I hold to be open to criticism. DENNING. 16th September, 1963. (00069) We 616-153 K290 9/63 HS.