SYDNEY PAPERS GROWL

Grey River Argus, 14 February 1940, Page 8

SYDNEY PAPERS GROWL

About Censorship BRITISH END BLAMED (Received February 14, 1.30 a.m.) SYDNEY, February 13. The daily newspapers here are extremely annoyed at what they call the “muddling delays and conflicting censorship regulations,” associated with the departure of the Australian troops early in January, and also with their arrival with the New Zealanders in Egypt. To-night “Sun” describes it as an amazing tale of how the fumbling hand of Mumbling Minnie— the British censorship— has reached out to Australia, and created a situation that would have been incredibly farcical, if it had not been so incredibly tragic.

The “Sun’s” criticism is directed mainly against “brass hats,” who, it says, constantly came between the Ministry of Information and the press, preventing the publication of the departure of the troops, or pictures thereof, when literally the whole ot Australia was familiar with every detail, and when thousands actually waved the troops to sea. The “Sun”, along with the morning newspapers, adds a bitter protest about inexplicable delay and withholding of news on the troops’ x arrival abroad, and emphasises that the news was heard from the 8.8. C. hours before it was officially released here. The "Sun” states Mr Menzies, Prime Minister, intends making a protest to the British Government over conflicting announcements, censorships and unwarranted suppression of pictures.