“CRETE NEWS”

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 August 1941, Page 6

“CRETE NEWS”

STORY OF A NOTABLE PUBLICATION TOLD BY ITS SUB-EDITOR. FIFTH ISSUE CUT SHORT BY BOMBS. The story of a journalistic enterprise that deserves to be remembered the publication by New Zealanders of a newspaper in Crete—is told in its details in the "North Auckland Times" of Dargaville, by Private A. McG. Membery. Prior to his enlistment Private Membery was sub-edi-tor of the "North Auckland Times." and he acted in the same capacity on the little paper which had a brief but by no means inglorious career in Crete. The “Crete News.” Private Membery states, had a short and merry life. It was published on four occasions. the fifth appearance being cut short in the course of publication by an avalanche of bombs and parachutists which spelled finis to the paper. ‘■Returning from the difficult campaign in Greece,” Private Membery. goes on to relate, “we all found comparative quietness on Crete Island for three weeks.” It was during this period that the idea was conceived of printing a paper, although the possibility of enemy parachutists landing was always borne in mind. For a month in Greece there was no English newspaper available to give the troops news of the outside world, “and for all that time (Private Membery observes) we were living in a little world of our own and it was not a pleasant little world either.” A Greek printing house in Canea, which also produced a daily Greek newspaper, agreed to the terms of publication of the “Crete News,” “and a two-storeyed house, immediately named ‘Fernleaf House,’ complete with radio, was acquired as the editorial chambers and from here the news of the world flowed in, to be later lapped up by the soldiers.” Just who was responsible for the I idea of starting the paper is not known, Private Membery states, but SecondLieutenant Geoffrey S. Cox, a New Zealand Rhodes Scholar (1932). with experience as a war correspondent in Spain, Finland and France, was responsible for the foundation of the paper and became its editor and manager. Lieutenant Cox (who was born in Palmerston North) enlisted in the New Zealand forces in Britain, and served in Greece and Crete.

The remaining members of the literary staff were Private Membery, as sub-editor, and Private Barry Michael (18th Battalion), whose duties were to take the news off the air. Private Michael, whose parents are residents of Masterton. is an old boy of the Wairarapa High School and at the time of his enlistment in the First Echelon in 1939 was a reporter on the “Dannevirke Evening News.”

A great deal of trouble was experienced in endeavouring to reach a working understanding, through the agency of an interpreter, with the Greek printers and as an additional setback an opposition firm took over the Greek compositors who were to have set up the “Crete News.” Finally an S.O.S. was sent out to the 18th and 21st Battelions for New Zealand compositors and three soldiers answered the call. These were Private A. McL. Taylor, formerly on the “Auckland Star” staff, who supervised the make-up of the pages, Private I. C. Bryce, formerly a compositor on the “Waikato Independent,” Cambridge, and Private A. Brunton, who was employed before the war by a Hamilton printing firm. Overcoming many difficulties, these men set to work with a will and speedily brought out the first issue of the “Crete News” on May 16. One only of the difficulties was a dearth of “w’s” in the font of English type which had been obtained from Athens. This was overcome by using the letter “m" upside down in place of “w.”

In its first issue the “Crete News” was a single sheet of two pages, containing in all twelve 16-inch columns. It was very well produced and the feature item —the Hess flight to Scotland —was effectively displayed. Prominence was given also to messages conveying good wishes from the King of Greece and Major-General Freyberg, Commander-in-Chief in Crete. The third issue, Private Membery observes, “ran a streamer heading about the British Navy’s success in smashing the German invasion attempt on the island in boats from Greece, on the night of May 21, the gunfire of which we saw and heard.” The final scene in the life of the “Crete News” was described by its editor, Lieutenant Cox, in a broadcast: “The buildings were being bombed as the fifth and last edition went to press,” he said. “The staff had to put out fires in the building adjoining and fire caught the building in which they were working. Some blackened and dishevelled members of the staff brought me 600 copies of the ‘Crete News’ —they could print no more, as the building had been blown up.”