NONSENSORSHIP!

Greymouth Evening Star, 28 November 1940, Page 7

NONSENSORSHIP!

U.S.A. PRESS CRITICISM BRUTAL TRUTH DESIRABLE [BY CABLE.—PRESS ASSN. —COPYRIGHT.] LONDON, November 26. Criticism of the British censorship, which has not been heard for many months, is increasingly evident in the United States newspapers. The chief of the London bureau of the “New York Times,” reporting the air raids of November 23, said: “It is doubtful whether they did as much damage for. the British cause as the censorship, now in the full bloom of the silly season. Things have reached such a pass that British newspapers • are printing German communiques to make'a pretence of telling their readers what is going on in England. It is, defeating its own purpose, because in trying to fool the enemy it is only fooling Britain’s best friends. Britain wants greater supplies from the United States. The best hope of obtaining them is to let the United States know the extremity of her. need. But the censorship refuses. It is becoming ominously as oppressive as France’s before her collapse.”

The correspondent of the Associated Press of America (Mr Drev. Middleton) writing from London says: “The British capacity for understatement is working overtime, partly through patriotism and partlj through propaganda. Complacency distortion and reluctance to admit the truth are perhaps as dangerous to the British cause as the nightly bombings. “German night raiders have dropped tens of thousands of tons oi bombs. Yet one is asked to,believe that there is no. damage to military objectives. Are the bombers that hit Buckingham Palace unable. to hit sprawling factories in the Midlands? Believe it, if you can. The Germane have killed thousands of civilians without damaging morale. They have damaged shipping and railroads without demoralising the war effort. Londoners are cheerful and stubborn, but tired of shelter conditions, which are still an abominable menace to health and more dangerous potentially than the Nazi bombs. In other cities the people are less cheerful and grumble that London is more greatly protected. They say that propaganda which says that London is unhurt is causing the Nazis to change their strategy and hammer Coventry, Liverpool, Birmingham, Bristol, and Southampton. The people are more ready to face the brutal truth than the newspapers or the British Broadcasting Corporation.” The Associated Press of America, commenting on this dispatch, says it is significant because it has passed the censorship, which until now has frowned on such statements. It may mean that the British have changed their attitude and believe that a dark picture of danger will arouse more sympathy in the United States than the confident optimism displayed hitherto.

BRITAIN’S SHIPPING LOSSES. LONDON, November 26. “I am not going to hide the fact that the rate at which we are building ships does not make up for our losses,” declared the Minister foi Shipping (Mr Ronald Cross) in a broadcast address. Mr Cross said losses had grown from an average, of 20,000 tons a week during the inactive first part of the war to 60,000 tons after June. . “Our shipyards are working to the utmost,” he said, “but a very laige part of their capacity must be given up to naval construction. Many yards, instead of building ships, are engaged in making repairs. We are anxious to get more ships built overseas and are looking primarily to United States shipyards. We must have ships. The issues depending on our having enough ships are so tremendous that we cannot make too sure of the shipping position in the months and years which may pass before victory.”