Evening star., 1942-06-21

Doolittle story. There are MANY persons
who believe that publicity itself would
have been better served had the public
known earlier of Doolittle's part.
The timing of the Doolittle announce
ment apparently was motivated by an
official desire to improve public morale,
and one of the questions Mr.. Davis will
have to face is whether information is
designed primarily to- instruct and in
form or to raise morale.
Whatever Mr.. Eavis does, 1t is doubt
full whether he will be able to satisfy
the American people with the Washing
ton information program. England has
reorganized its Ministry of Information,
and its hide still is bruised by slings and
arrows. Frances before its fall, reor-
ganized its information ONCE. and few
in France were satisfied.
shake-up Is Expected.
1t is expected that the weeks to come
will bring a gradual shaking up and
shaking out process in the Owl, which.
for the present, is composed OF the STAINS
of four offices which it supersedes.
The OFF, the Col, the Dol and the
OGR have been spending about $20,000,-
900 a year, although only two of the
agencies are a year old. The OFF, es-
tablised last October "a was charged in
large degree with the same purposes
that prompted creation of the Owl,
namely. to provide a national under
standing of the status and progress OF
the war effort, but the emphasis in the
birth of the OFF was laid on propaganda,
and in the Owl the stress is on facts.
The OFF has been issuing from time
to time statements based on the findings
of the Federal communica tons monitor
ing system. 1t has been compiling a
United Nations songbook, and one Gen.
tral European diplomat obliged the OFF
by singing his country's anthem so that
the OFF could get the songs pitch. The
OFF also has issued geography book
on the United Nations for our troops.
Archibald MacLeish. director of OFF,
gradually has assumed the role OF chief
Government lecturer. giving speeches to
gatherings in an effort to explain the
Washington attitude toward information.
What his future status under the new
setup will be is a question which Mr..
Davis probably soon will decide.
The Col, created last July II under
the direction of Col William j. Donovan,
has been a house divided into many
parts. 1t employed geographers and
psychologists and historians who collect
and collate information on countries
abroad. 1t had on its staff special mill
tary advisers, both American and Brit
ish, who made up super-intelligence
unit.
Daily Budget of News.
1t prepared a daily budget of news
which it cabled to Allied nations not
under Nazi domination. 1t prepared
broadcasts for short-waving to Axis and
Axis-held nations. 1t broadcast to our
troops overseas.
The Owl inherits all the OFF and
the public international aspects of the
Col. The two organizations have been
overlapping in the collection and issu-
ance of much information: the OFF has
been sending to foreign language news
papers in the United States the same
materials that the Col has been send
ing to foreign newspapers and to foreign
radio listeners.
The Division of Information, Office for
Emergency Management, long has been
regarded at the Bureau of the Budget as
a model of administrative efficiency, but
it has been unable to resolve the con-
fusing differences in public statements
by high officials.
The Office of Government Reports,
which dates from July /. 1889, is an
agency that digs out information for
Government officials and for members
of Congress, besides running the public
information Office at Pennsylvania ave-
nue. and Fourteenth street NV
An innovation which is talked about
here now as possibility is the estab-
lishment of branch of Owl in England,
just as the British Ministry of Informa-
ton has the British Information Services
in the United States. Reports have
been coming back to America that the
role we are playing in the war against
the Axis is being inadequately presented
to the English. whose chief attention is
trained on their Russian allies.