asked the Prime Minister in view of the danger that national daily newspapers will soon be reduced to three in number, if he will establish an official inquiry into the cost of newspaper production, and the possible reduction and limitation of circulation, so as to prevent the extinction of further newspapers; and if he will make a statement.

No, Sir. The matters to which my hon. Friend refers were inquired into by the Royal Commission on the Press.

Is not there something wrong in the newspaper production world when a newspaper like the Daily Herald, which has 2 million devoted political supporters, is losing £1 million a year? Since freedom depends on every point of view being read, ought not something to be done to stop further newspapers going bankrupt?

Had my hon. Friend asked was there something wrong in the newspaper world, I dare say that my answer would have been, "Yes". But that is not the Question on the Order Paper. He asked for an inquiry. There has been one. The trouble is that no one has found the answer on how to deal with the trouble.

Is the Prime Minister aware that some of us are concerned about the nonchalant way in which he has dismissed the Question put by his hon. Friend? Is he aware that it is not only a case of huge redundancies in this industry, serious though they are, but that also it is a case of closing up avenues of publicity and propaganda? Surely he would himself have wished that the silly speech which he made yesterday could have had a wider circulation.

I have no complaint about that; but I wish that we could find an answer. I was asked a Question about this the other day and I have been looking again at the Report of the Royal Commission on the Press. The Royal Commission looked for all sorts of economic remedies and found itself, at the end of considering every sort of economic remedy, bound to say, in effect, that it rejected all the propositions. No one has yet come forward with an answer.

Surely my right hon. Friend will agree that democracy requires that there should be the fullest expression in the newspapers of every point of view? Since this cannot be done unless we have a widely diverse type of Press, ought not this to be looked at again?

It is very difficult. This is a genuine difficulty, as I think the whole House would find. We might be able to stop the acquisition of one newspaper by another, through, let us say, an amalgamations court. But how? If an amalgamation is stopped, we cannot say that the newspaper we wish to save will continue to exist. That is the difficulty.

When rereading the Report, did not the Prime Minister also read the suggestion of a minority of members of the Commission for economic reforms of the newspaper industry which would lead to the reform suggested by the hon. Member for Louth (Sir C. Osborne)?

Yes, I did, but it was a minority Report. The Majority could not find an answer.