BELATED ANNOUNCEMENTS

Marlborough Express, Volume LXXVI, Issue 244, 16 October 1942, Page 2

BELATED ANNOUNCEMENTS

U.S. NAVY DEPARTMENT CRITICISED.

P.A. Gable.

NEW YORK, Oct. 15.

The newspapers strongly criticise the 65 days' delay in announcing the

loss of the three United States cruisers sunk in the Solomons. They were lost on August 9 in the same engagement as the Canberra, the loss of which was announced in Australia ten days later. "The delay ed announcement raises the whole question of the wisdom of our war censorship and information policy," says the New York Times, which declares that a fuller statement on the naval losses at Pearl Harbour is now long overdue. "There is strong reason to doubt that a delay of such length in announcing the loss of the three cruisers is justified," the paper says. "The accounts make it seem probable that the Japanese had a fair notion of the damage they had done. Although their claims that day were extravagant, they specifically included as sunk two heavy cruisers of the Astoria class and two more cruisers of the Australia class. Mr Curtin waited only ten days before admitting the loss of the Canberra. The United States Navy declared that its own statement would be delayed until replacements were sent. The fact that the belated admission of the losses came just a day before the announcement of the sinking of a Japanese cruiser and four destroyers will lead many to conclude — however unjustly — that the bad news was held up in this case until there was good news to offset it." The New York Daily News says: "The news from the Solomons is so slow in coming through that we cannot help wondering why it is not until 65 days after the event that the American people are notified of the loss of three big cruisers."