PUBLICITY: ONE DEPARTMENT'S EXAMPLE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 141, 17 June 1941, Page 6

PUBLICITY: ONE DEPARTMENT'S EXAMPLE

to bring the new telephone network into use smoothly the Post and Telegraph Department had a considerable task, not the least part of which lay in informing telephone users of what was to be done and of their part in it. This aspect of the task was studied seriously, a publicity plan was worked out, and through both Press and radio all telephone users were fully and repeatedly informed of what was afoot. The result was that yesterday a Departmental officer was able to say that "except for the mistakes of the public everything has gone without a hitch." And even the mistakes of those people who absent-mindedly dialled wrong numbers did not cause congestion, as would have happened but for the publicity campaign. There is a "moral" in this. The telephone change-over had nothing to do with the war, but—suppose if had. Experience suggests that the publicity side of the task is the one that would not have been adequately studied and organised. People would have been left in doubt, as they were over the "blackout. Newspaper men and others seeking information with which to clear away the doubts would have found it difficult to get, because of the need of "referring to Wellington," and also because of the notion that to give the public information may "help the enemy." For this state of affairs the Services and other Government Departments concerned with defence are not solely responsible. Much of the responsibility lies with the Government, which has never practically appreciated the importance of an adequate publicity organisation in relation to the war effort. It maintains a "Director of Publicity" with a small staff, but the Directors main task is that of censorship, and his title is a misnomer. The Post and Telegraph Department, knowing its job and its public, shown what can be done, and what must yet be done before the fully-comprehending co-operation of the public in the war effort will be obtained.