WAR CORRESPONDENTS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 19 October 1942, Page 5

WAR CORRESPONDENTS

ARE THERE TOO MANY? There have been many criticisms of official communiques and optimistic war correspondents’ messages. Mr J. L. Hodson. the well-known war correspondent, writing in the "Spectator,'' says:— , This war has shown, I think., how , well our people react to adversity Unpleasant truth, frankly told, cai brace them. On the other hand, wf tend to be too easily optimistic, we forget our Dunkirks and Singapore. 4 too readily, we are prone to see In s temporary success a harbinger ol i swift victory. Too many think a second front can be begun next Monday, and that a German collapse will thereupon occur the Monday following. Because of this tendency, more blunt truth would be a service to our cause. But the Press, which I have nc doubt would on the whole welcome that blunt truth, does not always make it easy for the military authorities to do all that they might tc assist. In the Middle East a few months ago, the Officer Commanding Public Relations inquired of me what the number of my war correspondent’s license was. I told him, adidng: “What number have we got to now—a hundred or so?” He replied: “The last number I have is 327.” (A few days later it had risen to 365.) Not all. of I course, are in the Middle East. Several theatres of war, cameramen as j well as writers, and American and ; Dominion correspondents in addition to British, go to make up the total. But I still think it is too large. In j Arras in 1939 there were 50 or 60 or 70 of us. The number in the Middle East to-day is not less, I think. It is obvious that no army at war can afford good facilities to an unlimited number of correspondents. Nor can a G.H.Q. take a host of men of unequal quality into its close confidence; it is natural, too that the ! greater the numbers become the more 1 jealously will privileges both of ! movement and criticism be regarded. ' When a very large number of news- | papers, agencies, broadcasting organ-

isations and the like insist on ap pointing their own particular cor respondents, the whole will be frustrated to a greater or less degree.