MRS TRUMAN STAYS ALOOF

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVIII, Issue 23278, 14 August 1945, Page 5

MRS TRUMAN STAYS ALOOF

Press Conference Cancelled DISTASTE FOR PUBLIC LIFE WASHINGTON. Mrs Bess Truman’s decision not to hold any Press conferences at all during her stay in the White House is considered by numerous observers here to be ill-advised. It is noted, also, that this decision in the negative was apparently a second thought, for the press women were notified in the beginning that their request to see Mrs Truman would be granted on April 17. This appointment was cancelled however, and repeated efforts since that time by the women of Mrs Roosevelt’s Press Conference Association to see Mrs Truman have been completely unsuccessful. This Association was formed when Mrs Roosevelt came to the White House and was the first organisation of women correspondents comparable to the White House Correspondents’ Association of the men.

Editors have been pressing their women writers for stories about Mrs Truman, whose modest manner and homeliness have caught the public imagination. People want to know more about her, and they feel they have a right to know what she is like, according to press women's somewhat irate bosses.

Objective observers, W'hile appreciating Mrs Truman’s desire to remain in the background and her distaste for public life, believe that her refusal to see the press may in the end react unfavourably upon the Administration. It is pointed out that President Truman has undertaken a most difficult task in which he Will need, and has asked for, the co-operation of ail the people. He must have all their good will and support to carry out the tremendous job before him.

The Trumans now are public figures whether they like it or not, and a normal amount of co-operation with the press will be helpful in winning that support, In the opinion of those who have had experience in public relations work.

The Association does not expect regular weekly conferences such as those held by Mrs Roosevelt, since Mrs Truman is not active in public life. But it has been the feeling of members that one interview perhaps with Mrs Truman when she moves into the White House, and establishment thereafter of some special White House news channel through which news of White House activity may be obtained, would be helpful all around. The press women are hopeful therefore that, after the period of White House mourning is over and the Trumans’ move from the Blair House where they are now residing into the White House quarters now being renovated for them, some special arrangement of this kind will be set up. Public interest to-day in this typical American family which has suddenly found itself the focus of national and International attention is intense and thoroughly friendly.