NEWS FROM LONDON

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 115, 10 February 1944, Page 5

NEWS FROM LONDON

Improved Transmission Facilities Urged

LONDON, February 8. Complaints of the .lack of adequate cabling and wireless facilities between London and the Empire were made at the annual meeting of the Empire Press Union. Lieut.-Colonel Astor, in his presidential address, said there was reason for anxiety in the growing difficulty of getting war news quickly overseas to the Empire, specially to Australia and New Zealand, London, as the news centre of the Empire, if not. the world, must have adequate news channels if it was to maintain its status. “The Dominions’’ war effort is immense. They above all have provided superb fighting men without stint. These countries must have the news day by day, and if possible hour by hour, on the progress of the war and the part their men are playing in it. Whole days liave~passed with the merest trickle of news entering Australia and New Zealand, and then only at urgent rates. The Empire Press Union secured the Press flat rate of a penny a word in - order to promote the flow of British news and views to the Empire, but owing to congestion this is not being achieved. An opportunity should occur for examination of the whole problem of Empire Press communications with the Dominion Premiers on their forthcoming visit to Britain.”

Mr. Irvine Douglas, London editor of the Australian Associated Press, said, "The need for improving the cable and wireless facilities has 'been urged on the Government ever since the outbreak of the war, but the blunt fact must be stated that today the news from London to many parts of the Empire, 'particularly Australia and New Zealand, is ofteu stale by the time it reaches its destination.

Closest in Spirit.

“Australia and New Zealand are in distance furthest from London, but probably closest in spirit. Is it too much to claim that the staunchly pro-British sentiment of those Dominions has in large measure been maintained and stimulated because most of their overseas news comes from London and reflects the British viewpoint? I say quite deliberately that only the very strong British sentiment of the Australian and New Zealand Press has prevented their shifting their principal offices for the collection of overseas news from London to New York. More than once the pressure of events has almost compelled them to do so. but even during the bombing of London they resisted that pressure. “Several prominent Australians have hern in Britain recently, endeavouring to find a solution, but they left without any promise of any immediate material improvement. and today one of them js in the United States investigating the 9 possibilities of getting faster moans of transmission through America. Yet those in Britain responsible for the state of affairs seem incapable of doing more than shrugging theii’ shoulders in a gesture of despair. Does the British Government realize what it would mean if some of the Dominions got most of their overseas news from foreign sources? Wo read that the armies of some of our Allies gb into action with wireless fransmi’ting equipment not far behind them. They apparently think the rapid dissemination of news of what their soldiers arc. doing is a number one priority. Wo think they are not far wrong.”