Printing House Square

London EC4

February 20, 1923

Dear Perry Robinson

The first and most important round is over, and you have secured a great triumph for The Times. Last week must have been a terrible one for you to live through, but, believe me, it was almost as anxious for us here. I personally did not know quite what to do with myself between receiving the Tompkinson telegram and Saturday morning, when I was able to compare the various papers. I have now received all your letters up to February 10. Dawson and Lints Smith have seen the whole budget. It is clear that you have had almost unbelievable difficulties, and your complete success is all the more astonishing. There is no doubt about it at all. The opposition has been overwhelmed and the battle for The Times-Carnarvon agreement has been won. You will have seen by now the very skimpy accounts of the actual opening that appeared in the rival sheets. The Morning Post was utterly eclipsed. Weigall, however, is undeniably clever. He seems to me to have made the best of a bad job, speaking purely from a journalistic point of view. I was quite clear about the winning of the battle on Saturday. It became absolutely decisive with your wonderful follow-up message, including Lord Carnarvon’s own story. I cannot recall a great news occasion on which the Daily Mail has been so completely beaten. Your big telegrams have been absolutely lapped up by the papers taking the service. Papers like the Manchester Guardian and the Yorkshire Post have given every word and splashed it in the most prominent position in the paper day after day. The New York Times seem thoroughly satisfied with their bargain – so much so that I was constrained at their request to send you an urgent telegram for a special Saturday message. This is not a precedent, and I hope your hard earned day of rest will not be disturbed in future.

We have naturally been extremely distressed at the personal campaign against Lord Carnarvon. Between ourselves, Lady Carnarvon was very upset and postponed her visit to Paris for some days on account of it. I had several talks with her and so had Lints Smith. The opposition, unscrupulous as it has been, ahs been very clever. It has hardly mentioned The Times, which it knows has a big stick but has concentrated on Lord Carnarvon, who is far away. The Times, however, is greatly concerned for the honour of Lord Carnarvon, and on the day of the big telegram the Editor ended the first leader with a vindication of Lord Carnarvon, which we telegraphed out to him yesterday. The whole business has been horribly unpleasant, but we can realise that it has been ten times more unpleasant for you than for us. I personally – and I am sure the Editor shares my view – think you have overcome your obstacles in a perfectly marvellous manner indeed. I know of no other journalist who could have tackled this extraordinary situation with the complete success which you have achieved. You have made the most important contribution to what seems to me to be the biggest new coup brought off by The Times in the last twenty years. Its effect on the fortunes of The Times is bound to be great. The circulation has simply been bounding up, and I have no doubt at all that it is almost entirely due to the Egyptian telegrams. It is a most fortunate thing that these great successes should be happening in the early days of the new proprietorship and the new editorship. During the last few days our circulation has actually been 20,000 above the figure of six weeks ago. The advance is almost incredible. You can realise what such figures mean in the case of a serious and high priced paper like The Times.

I am doing my utmost not to bother you with too many telegrams. At the beginning I thought it necessary to send you my ideas, as the situation was so tricky here and you could not be fully aware of the ints [sic] and outs of the Printing House-square situation. When once the service had been established nobody had any doubt that big results would accrue. They have accrued in fullest measure.

We should like Merton to feel that we appreciate very highly his admirably [sic] work.

In the end, I can only repeat the hearty congratulations from us all which I telegraphed to you on the morning of the publication of the great telegram.

With all good wishes,

Gordon Robbins

Sir Harry Perry Robinson.

PS. In your letter of February 8 you say that you are paying those members of the staff who have written articles. We approve of your action in this. Strictly speaking, we did not expect to have to pay for these contributions, but we fully recognise the difficulty and fully endorse the exercise of your discretion in the matter.

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