Garvin Gets Out

The man whom Lord Northcliffe once called "the greatest living journalist" finished his last, long-winded, lucid, discerning editorial. After 34 years, Britain's most quoted and respected editor, old (74), hawk-faced J(ames) L(ouis) Garvin was quitting the London Observer.

The vague explanation given the public was that Editor Garvin and his employer Viscount Astor had parted company over "editorial policy." The Grand Old Man of British journalism cagily commented: "For the first time for 34 years I can take my dog for a walk on a Friday instead of staying indoors to write my article. . . ." London reports said that Garvin had quit because the Observer was being turned over to Lord Astor's son Francis David Langhorne, socialist, Laborite, ex-factory worker and now captain of Marines.

Actually, handsome young David Astor will not take over until war's end. The Garvin-Astor split was not over him but over Winston Churchill, whom Garvin supports and the Astors don't like. Gar-vin's two "serious offenses" were outlined to him in a letter from Observer Director Sir Edward Grigg, lately resigned Joint Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for War. Said Grigg (no relation to new War Secretary Sir Percy James Grigg), Garvin had sinned: 1) in urging Churchill to keep his post as Defense Minister; 2) in saying that Beaverbrook should stay in the Cabinet. The Astors, who despise Beaverbrook, want Lloyd George in the Cabinet to check Churchill.

Other probable friction: a steady drop in Observer circulation (from an estimated 214,000 in 1936).

"If I gave up writing," says Garvin, "I suppose I should die." He has signed a fat contract to write a weekly piece for Beaverbrook's Sunday Express-"but without the Asterisks" (a Garvinesque pun). Meanwhile, although the Observer was mum on the subject, the possible new editor of the Observer was Arthur Mann, BBC governor and ex-editor of the Yorkshire Post, which first cracked open the Wally Simpson scandal in Britain.

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