Virginia Senator asks OWI report on statement or Pennsylvanian on ‘unholy alliance’
By Robert Taylor, Press Washington correspondent
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Völkischer Beobachter (December 10, 1943)
Sie wollen nicht Kanonenfutter für die Anglo-Amerikaner sein
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…wie ihn sich die Feinde Europas und Ostasiens erträumen (Zeichnung: Kurt G. Truetsch)
U.S. Navy Department (December 10, 1943)
For Immediate Release
December 10, 1943
Liberators of the 7th Army Air Force made late afternoon raids on enemy installations at Jaluit and Mille on December 8 (West Longitude Date). More than 40 tons of bombs were dropped in the target area at Jaluit. There was no enemy interception and none of our aircraft was damaged by antiaircraft fire. At Mille our planes were intercepted by 10 Zeros, two of which were probably shot down. Several of our planes received minor damage. One man was wounded.
U.S. State Department (December 10, 1943)
Ankara, December 10, 1943
Personal and strictly confidential for the Ambassador:
The recent meeting at Cairo was most helpful in drawing Turkey much closer to the Allies; although nothing definite was agreed upon for the time being. I hope the foregoing gives you the present picture.
STEINHARDT
The Pittsburgh Press (December 10, 1943)
U.S. artillery clears way for infantry advancing toward Rome
By C. R. Cunningham, United Press staff writer
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Ban on calling pre-Pearl Harbor fathers already being followed by local boards
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Sgt. Stinson
Washington –
The Navy announced today that Sgt. Robert W. S. Stinson of Chester, Pennsylvania, is the first Marine Corps combat correspondent officially reported killed in action. He had previously been reported missing.
Senate group backs plan to graduate amount for time served
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Presidential veto sure on basis of breach in pay formula
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Washington (UP) –
The Office of Censorship today acted to encourage freer presentation of war news in newspapers and on the air by liberalizing the voluntary codes covering press and radio and by assuming wider authority as arbiter of what may be published or broadcast.
In a special note to publishers and broadcasters introducing code revisions effective immediately, it said:
You are reminded that whenever anyone else, in any part of the country, makes a request which appears unreasonable or out of harmony with the code, you are at liberty to appeal at once to the Office of Censorship.
Much confusion would be avoided if such appeals were more frequent.
Military censorship is still supreme in foreign battle theaters, but from now on, the Office of Censorship constitutes itself as “appropriate authority” for clearing “material of all classes” whether or not such material has been announced officially.
Director Byron Price explained that the code revisions and the censorship’s assumption of previously unexercised power as an appropriate authority emphasized “the standing invitation to appeal doubtful cases to this office.”
Mr. Price said his office was concerned by what he called a “dangerous psychology” becoming increasingly apparent among newspapers and radio stations – a willingness to suppress news on almost anybody’s say-so for fear of violating the code.
He said even Chambers of Commerce in some instances and publicity agents in others, for example, had been able to persuade newspapers to withhold publication of legitimate news.
Mr. Price continued:
A great many people are anxious to keep things out of the paper for their own reasons. This sort of pressure every newspaper resists automatically in peacetime. I hope that this resistance isn’t going to be broken down just because we have a voluntary code in wartime.
I don’t want it to get so that everybody who walks into a newspaper office can suppress a news story. I want to guard against such a psychology.
Mr. Price made it clear, for example, that War Department orders to press relations officers over the country “have nothing to do with what newspapers may publish; they are not orders to newspapers and the Army has never so considered them.”
He said:
No government agency whatsoever, including the Office of Censorship, has any authority to issue any orders as to what newspapers can publish – all we can do is request.
Price said the elimination of some restrictions and the relaxation of others in the codes “reflect the studied opinion of the government that more information can now be published and broadcast without danger to national security.” And security, he added, remains the “single consideration” of the censorship.
He continued:
This conclusion in no way presupposes an early end of the war. It does take account of the fact that the war has taken an important turn from the defensive to the offensive.
Mr. Price emphasized that the Office of Censorship is not a news releasing agency and that the other agencies are still authority for what news they give out.
But when some agency asks suppression for security reasons of news in the possession of a broadcaster or publisher, and the code does not appear to apply:
We will be glad to have a little discussion with the agency and see if we can get them to change their minds.
Neither the Army, Navy nor any other agency, Price said, has any “authority, on delegation from the President or from any other source,” to ask newspapers not to publish news stories not covered by the code.
The code revisions make it possible for the press and radio to present a somewhat more complete picture of war production than before. They remove restrictions against nationwide summaries of war production, progress of war production as a whole, and movements of Lend-Lease material.
A new production clause restricts only secret weapons and data on output of specific weapons. For example, under the revised code a newspaper could publish on its own authority that total airplane production was a certain figure. But it should not, without appropriate authority, say how many of the planes were bombers, how many were fighters, etc.
The restricted list of critical materials is reduced by almost one-half eliminating aluminum, artificial rubber, magnesium, silk, cork, copper, optical glass and mercury.
Under the revisions, the Navy is no longer sole appropriate authority for information concerning the sinking or damaging of merchant vessels. Henceforth the War Shipping Authority is an appropriate source for such news.
Mr. Price said:
This will allow the story of the vital and heroic part of the Merchant Marine in winning the war to be told more fully by the War Shipping Administration.
Other changes included:
Restrictions are removed on “premature disclosure of diplomatic discussions” when such discussions do not concern military operations.
All restrictions concerning resettlement centers and about the location of war prisoner camps are eliminated. The FBI is recognized along with the War Department as an appropriate authority for information about escaped war prisoners.
Restrictions are removed as to publication of rumors or enemy propaganda on the grounds that they are “no longer necessary.”
Majority party hit hard by death, resignations and by-elections
By Lyle C. Wilson, United Press staff writer
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Charges utterly false, Minneapolis editor says of book
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Allies must decide between two ‘governments’
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Number of Nazi subs sunk in November exceeds their victims
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By Robert Vermillion, United Press staff writer
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Ousting of Japs from Huon Peninsula may bring New Britain drive
By Brydon C. Taves, United Press staff writer
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Bearded Sikhs of Iran-Iraq force give tiny painting and three big cheers
By Gault MacGowan, North American Newspaper Alliance
Cairo, Egypt – (Dec. 7, delayed)
Bearded Sikhs, who are a big part of the backbone of the British Army in India, presented Prime Minister Churchill on his 69th birthday with one of the famous cat’s-whisker miniatures, painted with a single hair from the sideburns of a Persian feline upon a velvet table runner by the veteran artist Imami.
The Sikhs who selected the strikingly unusual gift are members of the PI Force, an abbreviation for Persia-Iraq Expeditionary Force. Officers and soldiers jointly subscribed for the birthday present for the Prime Minister. Tommies had chosen for their birthday remembrance an Ispahan silver cigar box on an oval silver tray, and the Imami runner was to go underneath the cigar box set.
Mr. Churchill said in expressing his thanks:
I am a stranger to the PI Force but I know what you troops have done. I hope and trust that the decisions we are making at this conference will shorten the war and enable all of you to go back to your homes in the East or West, wherever they may be.
Give three cheers
The three cheers for Prime Minister Churchill which echoed at the conclusion of his remarks were so enthusiastic and prolonged that some of those who heard the in Tehran believed that the war had ended.
A tall sergeant major called for one more cheer for Mr. Churchill “to take back to the old folks at home,” and it was given as vociferously as the others.
Most members of the Tehran delegation brought Persian carpets back with them, the best being one that the Shah of Persia gave to President Roosevelt.
Old and bearded
Imami, the artist who painted the table runner presented to Prime Minister Churchill, is bearded himself; and old – so old that no one knows quite how old. He sits all day in a vaulted archway fronting the sidewalks of Ispahan and chooses with loving care the single whiskers from the beard of his Persian cat with which he paints scenes the ancient Zoroastrian history on bracelets of bone and other souvenirs.
His cat sits beside his busy, magic hands, watching patiently while he mixes his colors and applies them, and allows itself to be cuddled affectionately whenever its artist-master needs a new whisker. American officers and GIs from the great railroad and truck highway across the mountains from the Persian Gulf stop to watch Imami work. They pet his cat and buy from him Christmas bracelets which will soon be gracing pretty wrists in America.
All know Imami
Lt. Mitchell H. Habeeb, a carpet expert of Brooklyn, New York, told me:
Everybody knows Imami and his Persian cat. He is the most famous artist of Ispahan by popular acclaim and Ispahan is the most famous art center of Persia. The city turns out the best Persian rugs – real craftsmanship – and the silversmiths do lovely work – elaborate statues, minarets and table sets wrought in designs as fine as old lace.
Lt. Habeeb’s family is of Syrian origin, though he was born in the United States.