The Pittsburgh Press (October 24, 1942)
Editorial: Canada can teach us
Elmer Davis did a good job in Montréal the other day. The Director of the U.S. Office of War Information praised the fighting forces of our neighbor, and also the Canadian government’s policy of telling the truth about war losses.
We in this country are negligent in voicing the pride which we feel for our neighbors-in-arms. We have been boorish at times in praising our own exploits at the expense of our allies’.
Dieppe is a case in point. Though that valiant raid was predominantly Canadian, a few newspapers in this country headlined it as a Yankee affair – and some English newspapers also neglected to give full credit to the Canadians. Too many Washington reports of the Battle of the Aleutians fail to note the help we are getting from the Canadians.
Equally justified is Director Davis’ praise for the Ottawa government’s “candor and common sense” in announcing bad news. It took courage to tell Canadians that two-thirds of their Dieppe force was lost. Unfortunately, all of Mr. Davis’ efforts in Washington have not convinced the White House and the War and Navy Departments of the wisdom of such a frank policy.
Washington withheld publication of the loss of our three cruisers off Guadalcanal for 65 days – compared with Australia’s 10 days of silence on the sinking of its cruiser in the same battle – though the enemy announced destruction of those four cruisers the next day. The usual Navy Department delay with bad news is about five weeks.
Washington is still withholding the report on our plane losses at Pearl Harbor and Manila after 10 and a half months. As Mr. Davis put it in Montréal:
A free people wants to know how the battle is going, and will fight all the harder if it realizes how hard it must fight for victory.