American newspapermen working in London customarily divide the press between the popular newspapers, such as the _Daily Mirror_ and the _Daily Mail_, and the small-circulation papers, such as _The Times_ and the _Manchester Guardian_. The circulation of _The Times_ for January-June 1955 was 211,972 and for the _Guardian_ 156,154. Similarly, on Sundays there is a division between the _Sunday Times_ (606,346) and the _Observer_ (564,307) and such mass-circulation "Sundays" as the _Sunday Express_, the _Sunday Pictorial_, and the _People_. The distinction is not based primarily on circulation. _The Times_ and the _Manchester Guardian_ and the _Daily Telegraph_ on weekdays and the _Sunday Times_ and the _Observer_ on Sundays print more news about politics, diplomacy, and world events than do the mass-circulation papers. They are responsible and they are well written. The _Daily Telegraph_, which has a circulation of over 2,000,000, is the only one in this group whose circulation is in the "popular" field. But it has given few hostages to fortune: its news columns contain a considerable number of solid foreign-news items as well as first-class domestic reporting. The shortage of newsprint (the paper on which newspapers are printed) has curtailed the size of British papers since 1939. Almost all newsprint is imported, and with the balance of payments under pressure the expenditure of dollars for it has been restricted. But the situation has improved slowly and the London papers are fattening, although they remain thin by New York standards. Considering this restriction, the responsible newspapers do a splendid job. Day in and day out the foreign news of _The Times_ maintains remarkably high standards of accuracy and insight. The anonymous reporters--articles by _Times_ men are signed "From Our Own Correspondent"--write lucidly and easily. _The Times_ has never accepted the theory that involved and complicated issues can be boiled down into a couple of hundred words with the nuances discarded. News is knowledge, and no one has yet found a way to make it easy to acquire knowledge. But _The Times_, often called "_The Times_ newspaper," is a good deal more than a report on Britain and the world. It is an institution reflecting all British life. By reading its front page entirely devoted to classified advertising one can get a complete picture of upper-class and upper-middle-class Britain. In the left-hand columns are births, deaths, marriages, and memorial notices. If an American wants to understand how unstintingly the British upper classes gave their sons and brothers and fathers to the First World War, let him look at the memorial notices on the anniversary of the Battle of the Somme. If he wants to see how hard-pushed these same classes are today, let him read the painful, often pathetic admissions in the columns where jewelry, old diplomatic uniforms, and the other impedimenta of the class are offered for sale.