NEWS FROM LONDON

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 127, 22 February 1941, Page 10

NEWS FROM LONDON

Tribute To Association’s Staff til.' Telegraph —Press Association.) ROTORUA, February 21. in Ids address to the annual meeting of shareholders of the United Press Association, held at Rotorua today, the chairman of directors, Mr. E. A. Blundell, said: - "I would like at. the outset, to pay a tribute to those who, in the face of intense bombing and the most dillieult working conditions, have maintained an efficient nows service from the heart of tin? Empire. To the members of the sluff of the Loudon office of the Australian Associated Press, with which we are associated in obtaining our overseas news, the highest praise is due for their courageous behaviour and devotion to duty. Some of them have lost their homes; all of them, men and women alike, share the hazards of London—hazards that 1 have no doubt would have to be experienced to be realized—yet they carry on with energy and enthusiasm. "In the course of a letter to his directors, -Mr. R. Irvine Douglas, London manager and editor, said: '1 have not. heard 0110 complaint—only expressions of grill ifierition at flic privilege of being able Io supply a news service in siieli a vital crisis.’ Mr. Douglas, in a reference to a New Zealand member of his .staff, Mr. Trevor Ross, his second in charge, said: He works throughout the night, and lints except for his days off—by no means regular

—his time is divided literally between working at night and sleeping in the daytime.’ Mr. Douglas added that without exception the staff had responded to the very heavy calls made upon them. Tills applied not only to the editorial staff, but also to the messengers and typists. I am sure you will all ioin me in this expression of admiration of tlie work that is being done in London."

Mr. Blundell said that tlie volume of overseas news supplied to the subscribers to tlie association’s cable service during tlie year bad amounted to 1,790,866 words, easily a record iu tlie assoeial ion's histor.'.