The Press: What Price U. S. Papers?

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For two weeks last month no U. S. magazines of newspapers were received in London. While Britons accustomed to getting accurate news from abroad fumed and wondered, British officials blandly explained that there was no restriction on imports of foreign periodicals, that "the recent American shipping strike" was responsible.

Last week U. S. papers were once more on sale at London newsstands. But wartime regulations and wartime inflation had sent prices soaring. A Sunday edition that cost 10¢ in Manhattan sold in London for as much as 2/6 (about 50¢ at current exchange rates). Reason: no alien periodical could enter Great Britain without special permission from the War Office, except in single copies through the mail. And the increase in postage that newsstands had to pay was aggravated by the rising price of the dollar.