REUTERS

Evening Star, Issue 23379, 23 September 1939, Page 6

REUTERS

PIGEON POST OFFICE GREAT NEWS AGENCY TO-DAY From pigeon post to world famed international news agency is the story of Reuters, which has just moved into its own new: offices equipped with every modern device, and specially built to allow it to work side by side with the Press Association —British home news agency. Set back from the road and tapering from the sixth floor upwards the now Reuter building neither . dwarfs nor shades, the surrounding offices or street, states a writer in the ‘ Christian Science Monitor.’ It is designed by Sir Edward Lutyens, and stands in Fleet Street, heart of British newspaperdom. The Reuter coat of arms is above the door, and high up is the golden six foot statue of the “ Herald,” an angel astride a globe publishing news to the world. By radio, telephone, and cable, world news pours day and night into this vast clearing house to be sorted, shaped into interesting “stories,” and retransmitted to every country—a service costing over £6,000,000 a year. To aid Reuters and Press Association in maintaining this service, the most modern apparatus for collecting and transmitting news has been installed. Telecord apparatus which 'records telephone calls from correspondents— Reuters have 3,000 in all—and a selfdirecting pneumatic tube system are two of the newest innovations. There is an internal automatic telephone exchange with 160 external lines, and direct communication with the London international telephone exchange. At the top of the building' are bedrooms for members of llio staff who

have to work very late, and a canteen which serves hot meals from 8 a.m. to 4 a.m.—2o hours a day. In the basement is a bombproof shelter. Renters began when a German bank clerk, Julius Reuter, noticing that the transmission of Paris stock market prices were delayed by a gap in the telegraph between Brussels and Aix-Ia-Chapelle, started a pigeon post between the two towns. His venture proved successful, but the completion of the through PansBerlin telegraph line ruined liis business. Julius returned to London. He became nationalised, started a commercial service, and turned his attention to news. In those days newspapers could not afford to use telegrams which cost 12s for 50 miles. However, Julius realised that if newspapers would each contribute something to the . collection and distribution of news a quick telegraphic service could be maintained. The idea was successful. The fame which came to the Reuters agency during the American Civil and FraucoPrussian wars was increased by the two-day “ scoop ” (ahead even of the British Government) of news of the relief of Mafeking from the Boers in l ooo ' ..TV • •. J From the very first Julius insisted that all news transmitted should be absolutely accurate. To-day Reuters proudly maintain that they have kept up this standard, and assert they have done it so well that the Chinese use the word “ Reuter ” as a synonym for truth. . , ’ _ , When Julius retired as the Baron do Reuter he was succeeded by his son. Once a joint stock company, with publicly owned shares, Reuters was reorganised as a private trust by its pre-sent-day chairman, Sir Roderick Jones, at the ‘beginning of the war, in order to stop it falling into anti-Ally hands. Now it is owned by the provincial newspapers of the United Kingdom.