Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1942-11-20
Davis Cautions Public
Not 10 LET Politics
Color War Judgment
owl Chief Denounces
Rumor-Moneerine Of
FoIse Reports on Losses
b. the Associated Press.


Elmer Davis, director OF the Once
Of War 1nforma ton, cautioned the
public last night against letting
politics color its judgment of the
war effort
In radio address designed to ex-
plain the policies under which mill
tary information is withheld, Mr..
Davis denounced rumor- mongering
about false reports Of American
losses and commented
1T may be a coincidence that
this criticism reached its peak in
the week before the election.
I'VE do not want to give any
military information to the enemy.
We do want to tell the American
people as much as we can, without
endangering our own forces, or help
ing the enemy. Remember that, the
next time the rumors start going
round-even if it happens to be just
before an election
Rebukes Two Lawmakers.
Without mentioning names, Mr..
Davis rebuked two members OF
Congress for allegedly false state
ments on military losses.
He suggested that some of the
skepticism about battle reports has
been due to some people, who in
their zeal for brutal frankness, al
most seem to feel that the Govern
ment ought to put out bad news,
whether it has any or not"
Mr. Davis said the policy of with
holding certain types of military
information from the public was
justified by the success of the Amer
lean occupation of North Africa.
The enemy, he said. was kept in
the dark so successfully about the
huge conveys that Axis submarines
or planes never once attacked the
vessels while in the Atlantic and
only once in the Mediterranean Sea
before the landings began.
Not ship or a man was lost
through enemy action on the way
to North Africa, he added.
Asserting that it is essential that
certain naval information be held
UP for reasons of security, Mr.. Davis
said that in the battle of Savo
Islands on the night Of August 8-9
japanese forces withdrew and that
there was good reason to believe
that the enemy did not know how
much harm he had done' to us in
the dark If the japanese had
known that three American and one
Australian cruisers were sunk they
would have proceeded to attack
American transports landing troops
on Guadalcanal," Mr.. Davis said.
ut is still more doubtful if the
enemy knows how much loss he has
inflicted on us in battles fought
by air, with the surface ships out
of sight OF one another Mr.. Davis
added This was the case in the
operations in which we lost at va
rious times, four aircraft carriers
f1rst the Lexington, then the York
town, then the Wasp and then an
other whose name is still withheld
for valid and gratifying reason OF
military security which was not
present earlier
Toxic Claims Everything.
Each of these ships sank some
hours after the action in which it
had been damaged each sank at
considerable distance from the scene
of the action. at time when no
enemy warships or planes were in
sight, and in every case there was
strong probability that the enemy.
though he know the vessel had
been badly damaged, did not know
1t had been lost.
1T may be said the Toxic broad
casts claimed these sinkings. Well,
Toxic broadcasts claim everything
and admit almost nothing. In the
operations in which we lost the
Wasp, Toxic claimed to have sunk
three of our carriers: in the battle
of Santa Cruz Islands. when we lost
the last one. they claimed four,
"A compilation OF Toxic broad
casts shows that all told the Jap
anese have announced the sinking
Of 10 American aircraft carriers,
when we only had seven to begin
yr-,t !,