Third Baron

One of the most powerful, most inconspicuous newspaper magnates in Britain is a sandy-haired, London-born Jew, 67-year-old Julius Salter Elias (TIME, March 8), boss of Odhams Press Ltd., who has an interest in over 100 periodicals, ranging from the Daily Herald, a Labor paper with over 2,000,000 circulation, to Debrett's (Britain's Social Register). Fleet Street newshawks have long been certain of one fact about elusive Publisher Elias--that for years he has coveted a title, to become formally the peer of Britain's only two comparable press tycoons, Barons Beaverbrook (Daily Express) and Rothermere (Daily Mail). Julius Salter Elias' dream came true last week. In the Coronation Honors List he was down for a barony.

Two stories buzzed around London's newspaper offices last week. First, Publisher Elias did not get his title earlier because he once published in John Bull a birth certificate of onetime Prime Minister James Ramsay MacDonald to prove that MacDonald was illegitimate. Now that Mr. MacDonald is politically passe, he was no longer able to keep Mr. Elias out of the peerage. Second, Publisher Elias steered the Daily Herald away from the Duke of Windsor during the Simpson crisis.

Publisher Elias by week's end had not announced how he would style himself.

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