Evening star., 1942-12-16

Brief excerpts haze been pub
hshed, sent by cable from Eng
land, from, the report OF DON
Iddon, correspondent of the Lon
don Daily Mail and Sunday Dis
patch, as published in the Sun
day Dispatch, on American CEN
SorShip. Here is the complete
report, received by airmail by
The Star and the Mort. Amer
ican Newspaper Alliance.
BY DON IDDON.
This Is protest against certain
aspects Of American censorship. I
am making it, not merely on my own
behalf but on the behalf OF British
correspondents here, and I hope the
appropriate American authorities
will permit it to be transmitted to
England without deletions. In fact,
I am taking the chief of American
censorship, Mr.. Byron Price, at his
word.
The other evening, when he was
a guest OF the British correspondents
at a dinner, he told us, You can
say what you like about our CEN
sorship. That won't be censored"
Well, this is what I would like to
say. The American censorship of
outgoing press messages is prevent
ing the British people from getting
a complete picture OF America at
war. What we have been sending
and what you have been reading is
the truth, but not the whole truth.
Right Impression" Wanted.
American censorship is not per-
mitting the whole truth to be cabled.
There have been many important
developments here which have ap-
peared in the American press and
been read by millions of people
which we have not been allowed to
send to England. There have been
criticisms Of war effort and direc-
ton made publicly here in the press
and over the radio, which you have
not heard about because the Amer
ican censorship has stopped us from
reporting them.
In some instances an erroneous
impression has been given to Britain
Of the output Of certain war fac
tories Efforts on the part of Brit
ish correspondents to correct that
impression have failed, too, because
our messages have been suppressed.
repeat, you are not getting the
yvrI n oh
because officialdom is partly gag
ging us.
The opinions of responsible men
in high position sometimes do not
reach you if the censorship does not
happen to think those opinions
would create the right impression
abroad.
Stricter Than British.
The American censorship is tough
and hard and very stringent. 1t is
much stricter than the British CEN
sorship. The head of an important
British news agency who has just
completed tour here said to me
today: The British censorship at
its worst Is better than the Ameri-
can censorship at its best"
I do not think any American
correspondent who has filed mes
sages out of London and who re-
turns to his own country and tries
to file out of New York will disagree
with that. There is no comparison
between the two. Our censorship
of dispatches and articles going out
of Britain Is much more lenient,
much more tolerant, much more in
democratic tradition.
These are not just my own views.
They are the views of most British
correspondents here. The plain fact
is We are all worried about the
course the American censorship Is
following. Some of us are angry.
Patience Gets No Reward.
For a long time we have been
patient. We have tried talking our
problems over with the censors
across the table. Frequently, but
without much success, we have
tried patient negotiation with Off
cials. But it has been failure.