Greymouth Evening Star. AND BRUNNERTON ADVOCATE TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1940. PUBLICITY AND MORALE.

Greymouth Evening Star, 17 September 1940, Page 6

Greymouth Evening Star. AND BRUNNERTON ADVOCATE TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1940. PUBLICITY AND MORALE.

>N war, as in peace, it is not the most praiseworthy deeds that, necessarily, get the most publicity, the salvage of St. Paul’s Cathedral by the removal of a super-bomb, being an instance of a great exploit being dismissed with a few short paragraphs. Little thought is required to realise the wonderful sustained courage required over a period of days, to undertake, successfully, the task which Lieutenant Davies and his scpiad had to do. At any moment, during those many hours, death may have struck them, yet, undaunted, they continued their patient labours, until the triumphant end. Doubtless, the Ministerial tribute will be followed by the award of suitable decoration, but the continued existence of the Cathedral will be the best memorial of superb heroism and devotion to duty.

Because there happened, to be involved the fate of the Empire’s most famous Cathedral, —St. Paul’s is known as the parish church of. the Empire, because of flip number of Overseas worshippers and visitors it attracts, — public attention was drawn to the achievement of Lieutenant Davies and his squad, yet they -would be among the first to remind the nation that similar work has become almost routine, on land, and sea, with the public hearing little or nothing about it. These unknown heroes carry out their special jobs with no thought of their own merits. Surely, pride of race is justified when reflecting on this daily acceptance of great risks and arduous toil. The sea, land and air forces of the Empire provide daily examples of real heroism. The civilians, who are of the same stock, are inspired by these examples, when they hear of these, to maintain their own morale. Are they told enough?

■A year of war .should have brought the art of publicity on the conflict’s many phases, almost to perfection, but few would claim that this has yet been approached. Wireless announcements often irritate, when they should inform, and Press cablegrams .are not free from reproach where a sense of proportion is concerned. Too much, attention is given to comparative trivialities, and not enough to happenings about which people are really interested. For instance, many in New Zealand and Australia would like the Cairo announcements to be more informative. Mr. Richard Dimbleby, the British Broadcasting Corporation observer in the Middle East, declared, last week, that the British, comymnicpies tend to minimise the

successes of the British raids. This is a pity, as this depreciation tends to give wrong impressions to the public. They are told that every enemy advance is unimportant and that the territory Avon from the British- has no military value. This may be true, and clear enough to those at the scene of operations, but many at home are frankly puzzled. It is to be hoped that, if the Italian offensive against Egypt has definitely started, adequate news, welcome or otherwise, will be promptly available to those Overseas, whose menfolk may be directly engaged.