BOMBED LOCALITIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 December 1940, Page 2

BOMBED LOCALITIES

DISCLOSURE OF NAMES. POLICY OF THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, December 4. Both the Minister of Information, Mr Dull Cooper, and the Under-Secretary for Air, Captain Balfour, answered questions in the House of Commons regarding Government policy about the publishing of the names of British places bombed by the Germans. I Captain Balfour said: “The general policy is to publish the names of places bombed in any particular case. This can be done without conveying information of value to the enemy. In accordance with this policy, the name of Coventry was released, while the names of other localities were not. “I arn fully aware of the desirability of giving early information to rue public as to the results of air raids in this country, thus counteracting the grossly exaggerated claims made in enemy communiques. These are often deliberately framed to tempt us to make contradictory comment on the result of the enemy’s operations. I cannot, therefore, give any complete undertaking that immediate detailed publication will be made- in any case where it is considered that it would convey information of value to the enemy.” Mr Duff Cooper said that no indication was given to the Press regarding the importance of the Coventry attack. “They are quite capable of forming any estimate of the importance of the event.”