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U.S. liberalizes voluntary censorship code for newspapers
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:
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Restrictions are removed on “premature disclosure of diplomatic discussions” when such discussions do not concern military operations.
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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.
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Restrictions are removed as to publication of rumors or enemy propaganda on the grounds that they are “no longer necessary.”
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MacGowan: Cat’s-whisker miniature given Churchill at Tehran
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.
Planners map post-war task for business
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By John Beach, Scripps-Howard staff writer
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In Washington –
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Allies massing invasion army, Berlin reports
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New Jap infantry rifle still far behind Garand
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Roving Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
Allied HQ, Algiers, Algeria – (by wireless)
Ever since leaving America on the long trip back over, I’d had a vague feeling that something bad was going to happen. It wasn’t exactly a premonition, and I didn’t really worry about it. Yet a slight fear was there.
So, when at least we came over Algiers, after 8,000 miles of probably the most perfect long trip I ever had, I thought to myself:
Well, we crack up when we land here. I suppose it’s our last chance for anything to happen.
I was pretty tense when we skimmed down the runway. It seemed the pilot would never get the wheels on the ground. But finally, they did touch, lightly as a feather; we ran smoothly and straight. And nothing happened at all.
We sighed and were at the end of the trail. As we stepped out of the plane, the lieutenant who took the travel orders looked up and said:
How does it feel to be back?
The airport was thronged with British, American and French travelers in uniform, hundreds of them. As we were waiting for a jeep to come for us, a British captain I’d known months ago came up and asked if he could ride into town with us.
‘Welcome home!’
Pretty soon Dick Hottelet from London came past and said a startled hello. Shortly after him came Fred Clayton of the Red Cross, just landed from Italy. Then a young naval lieutenant I’d known in Morocco and an officer I’d never seen before yelled across the crowd. “Welcome home!”
Then I knew that the old fraternity of war had enmeshed me once more.
Algiers has changed some since I left it nearly three months ago. The blackout has been lifted in favor of a dimout. Everybody feels very far from the war. The barrage balloons still fly over the harbor, but they are fewer. The streets are so thick with soldiers of three nationalities you can hardly walk.
There are some American civilian women where before there were none. There are more WACs now, too. Soldiers were always saluting us correspondents, so there must be new troops in town. Great rows of boxed engines line the roads, supply dumps fill the fields, the road in from the airport is rougher from much convoying.
You have a feeling that North Africa from the Atlantic to Cairo has become a war depot of unprecedented proportions.
Everybody is friendly and terribly anxious to know how things are at home.
They ask:
Can you get enough to eat? Can you still have any fun? Have things changed much? Can you go up to a bar and buy a drink? Is there any traffic in the cities? Can you still get a glass of milk? Can you buy eggs? Are prices terribly high?
A dozen soldiers have told me their families had intimated we were probably better off here for food than they were at home. Some even wonder whether they should go home if they got a chance.
Ernie has stock answer
To all of which I answer something like this in composite:
Can you get enough to eat? You certainly can. There are a couple of meatless days a week in many places and steaks are very scarce. Yet I know places in Washington where you can get steak every night. They are not black-market, either. It’s almost impossible to buy liquor by the bottle, but you can still get plenty by the drink. Sure, you can get milk and eggs, too.
Most of your circle of men friends have gone. Gas rationing makes it a little hard to get around, but you manage. The shortage of domestic help is dire. Prices are high, but nothing compared to what the French and Italians charge us over here.
Train travel is sometimes difficult, but certainly not impossible. You can’t get a new telephone installed now, and laundry takes a long time. People are starting to hoard cigarettes. You can still telephone long distance and talk as non-essentially as you like.
The famed Pentagon isn’t so hard to get around in and is actually very handsome. Taxis won’t come to your house on call in some cities, but if you are downtown, you can still pick them up. Everybody has money, and entertainment of all kinds goes full blast. Ninety percent of the people you meet say, “I think we’re too complacent here at home.”
The people are talking a lot of Republican talk, but from what I could see of the tenor of the people, the President will stay in next year.
I found absolutely no criticism of the grand strategy or the conduct of the war, although there is plenty of it about the conduct of the home front.
And I wind up telling my overseas questioners:
The country hasn’t changed as much as you dream it has. Go ahead and go home if you ever get the chance. You’ll have the time of your life. I certainly had.
So they know. Well… I don’t think the invasion is gonna go that well.
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Dr. Fishbein: Immunity built up expected to prevent more serious type from catching on
By the United Press
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