VERSATILE JOURNALIST IN FLEET STREET

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27391, 17 May 1950, Page 4

VERSATILE JOURNALIST IN FLEET STREET

New Zealanders In Britain No. B.—GEOFFREY COX

Resident Correspondent ' LONDON. Mar. 28. In Fleet street, the heart of the British newspaper world, few journalists are more highly regarded than Geoffrey Cox, the political correspondent of the News Chronicle. Only 39 years of age this versatile New Zealand Rhodes Scholar has already built up an impressive record as a foreign correspondent, war correspondent, film script writer, broadcaster, and author. For him. the doors of Fleet street have certainly opened to adventure and excitement. He has covered the Spanish Civil War, the Anschluss in Austria, the 1938 crisis in Czechoslovakia, the war between Russia and (Finland, and the German advance into France. Even today at Westminster, where he spends most of his time about the lobbies of a tense House of Commons, there is excitement in every ring of the division bells, in every debate, every illness, every intrigue Born at Palmerston North, but educated in the south at the Invercargill Boys’ High School and the University of Otago, Geoffrey Cox first showed his interest in journalism by editing the University student magazine. Critic, and by contributing articles to the Otago Witness. His ambition, however, was to enter law and to that end he took his LL.B. and M.A degrees. Not until he graduated B A at Oxford, after being elected a 1932 Rhodes Scholar, that he definitely decided to be a journalist. Rising of the Nazis

His first major article resulted from a trip to Germany in 1934, when he worked with the German Youth Movement on a project which he latei discovered to be a military airfield near Hanover. Little was known of this movement in those days, and he found a ready market for his articles in USA. Britain and overseas. Encouraged by this success, he took a position as a “space’ writer with the News Chronicle, and the following vear (1936) he was taken on the regular staff. Soon he was m Madrid covering the Spanish Civil War, about which he later wrote a successful book. “ It was really fantastic.” he says today. “From our hotel we could see the troops on either side being manoeuvred like chessmen and often we could actually see them charging each other.” . , T . In 1937 he transferred to Lord Eeaverbrook’s Daily Express and was sent to Vienna where he watched at first hand the Nazi machinations which culminated in the annexation of Austria Then he was sent to take charge of the Paris office and for the next fhree years he ranged all Europe from Belgium to Yugoslavia. . . , The year 1940 found. him in Finland reporting the war with Russia. He was one of the few observers to appreciate the full strength of the Russian Army. He realised that it was mainly due to the Russian troops being caught by an early winter without oroner equipment that enabled the Finns to put up such a remarkable resistance His book on this campaign. “ The Red Army Moves,” attracted considerable notice and acclaim. By this time the war in the West was beginning to gain momentum. Back in Paris, he was soon forced to flee before the advancing Panzers. As he arrived in refugee-crowded Bordeaux, he heard that New Zealand troops had landed in Britain. “ Writing about someone else’s war can be quite fun," he says, “ but it is not such sport when it is vour own war.” He resigned from the Express and joined the 23rd Battalion of the New Zealand sth Brigade. He was soon commissioned and in Greece, where he served as a liaison and intelligence officer, his knowledge of German proving most useful. In Crete he founded the Crete News, the

forerunner of the 2nd NZEF Times, but after producing the first number he had to throw away his typewriter and join in the fighting. Throe despatches which he then wrote for the Express on this little-reported campaign were highly praised. After serving as a divisional intelligence officer in Egypt and Syria, he was seconded to be first secretary at the newly-opened New Zealand, Legation at Washington. Although working on interesting and important duties, he was always chafing to be back in uniform with the division, a wish he achieved in 1944. From Cassino to Trieste he was divisional intelligence officer commanding a section that always enjoyed a considerable reputation with other formations of the Bth Army. His “Road to Trieste” is a brilliant account .of the final advance in Italy, and of the ticklish diplomatic problems which confronted General Freyberg when he met the Yugoslav forces in that city. He was demobilised a major with the M.B.E. and a mention in despatches. Film on New Zealand

Returning to London, he rejoined the -Hews Chronicle as its political correspondent. He holds a similar appointment for the authoritative Economist and is a regular broadcaster in the Overseas Service of the BBC. He has written the film scripts for several of “ This Modern Age ” documentaries, including the one on Trieste, and at the moment is working on the script of the film on New Zealand, shooting of which was recently completed. Judging by the material he has so far seen this should be. an outstanding documentary, Mr Cox says. Like many other exiled New Zealanders, especially Rhodes Scholars, Geoffrey Cox is torn between the desire to return to his homeland and to remain in London. Nostalgic to him are his recollections of small town life in Invercargill and the countryside about Atiamuri where he spent many holidays. This is the sort of New Zealand ho would like for the upbringing of his two boys (one born in Paris, the other in Vienna) and his twin daughters. On the other hand. London is unquestionably the city of news and opportunity. Here lies his career. The ideal, he says, would be to spend part of the year in New Zealand and the rest in London, but that is impossible. This year, for the first time since he left 18 years ago, he hopes to return to consult Major-general Sir Howard Kippenberger about the 1941 Libyan campaign, which he is dealing with for the official War History.

“ Yes, 18 years is a long time to be away,” he says, “ but really I feel as if I have been away for less than that. To be with the division was to be in New Zealand itself.”