CHECKING CHATTER

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 168, 3 June 1940, Page 2

CHECKING CHATTER

MINISTRY OF INFORMATION UTILISES POWER OF FILMS The clangers of eareless talk about military matters are vividly shown in three short films, financed by the Ministry of Information, which I saw privately (writes a London cor respondent). In "All Hands" a sailor of H.M.S. Cambridge tells his sweetheart in the hearing of a waitress that his leave has been cancelled and his ship is sailing from Portsmouth at 9 p.m. The waitress tells the quiet mid-dle-aged manageress, she passes' on the information, a German agent signals from the shore, and the Cambridge is torpedoed by a waiting U-boat. "And such a nice couple." laments the sentimental waitress. "I do wish I could have done something for them!" In "Now You're Talking,'" a lorry driver chatters in a public hous,e and an aeroplane factory is blown up. "Dangerous Comment" teaches the same lesson by showing how an airman's sweetheart reveals thaJt he is leading a raid on Germany. The films, produced by Michael Baicon and directed by John Paddy Carstairs, are good entertainment in their way and carry a powerful moral. They will shortly be distributed free to 2000 cinemas, and it is estimated that. 20,000,000 people will sec them. "In Germany," said Sir Kenneth C'ark, director of the films d vision of the Ministry of Information, "they cure wagging tongues in a concentration camp. That is not our way. We don't want to make people think that there is a spy in every public house, but if we don't show the danger of careless chatter we shall not be doing our job."