Evening star., 1942-06-28

The average individual will confront
the most exacting ordeal stoically. and
will usually rise superior to it, If he has
been encouraged to prepare for the test
ing period and if his energies have been
rallied to meet it.
Morale will quickly deteriorate, on the
other hand if in the face of discon-
certing experience men discover that
they have been deceived by those they
trusted. And faith thus forfeited is not
easily restored.
No football coach worthy of lis salt
would ever predict to a college team that
an opponent with formidable record
Is likely to prove a pushover. No young
mother with any intelligence would tell
her 6-year-old that his first visit to the
dentist is going to be joyous expert
ence. But those who disseminate what
they are pleased to call war information
seem far less skilled in the most eles
mentary aspects of human psychology.
The military reverses of the first week
Of this critical summer are serious
enough in their stark reality. There is
no ground for optimism in a sequence
including the British defeat in Libya,
the turn of the tide against Russia, the
increasing strangulatlon of China. the
rise of the toll of merchant shipping to
unprecedented heights. But all these
difficulties, depressing at best, assume
additional gloom by contrast with the
bright picture which had been earlier
painted.
Press Reports Misleading.
In his report to the House Of Com
mons last Tuesday, Deputy Prime Min
lister Attlee soberly recounted the steps
leading up to the loss of Tobruk. ON
June g." he said, the enemy succeeded
in overrunning the 15Oth Brigade.
Gen. Ritchie counterattacked on June
T." But this effort to recover lost ground
was premature" and I'VE were forced to
Withdraw with considerable losses
From then until the fall of Tobruk on
June q the record, as recounted by Mr..
Attlee, was an uninterrupted series OF
defeats for the British forces.
It is an instructive though disagree
able experience now to refer to the head
lines and editorials in our newspapers
during this period of developing dis
aster.
On June 2, a press association dispatch
from Cairo asserted cheerfully that "a
British commensurate has shattered
Marshal Erwin RommelS main often
sive in Libya" On June the carefully
edited New York Times placed the cap
ton Episode From Rommels Rout
over a wirephoto depicting one solitary
German in the act of surrenderlng to
British tank. On June 7, another press
association reported that the Germans
were "reeling back" Even as late as
June 16, Just before the final assault on
Tobruk, correspondent of the greatest
American news agency cabled from
} appeared stalled"
Cue Provided by Churchill.
But neither the newspapers, nor their
correspondents in the vicinity of military
operations, are primarily culpable for
the dosage of well-meaning deception
of which the recent Libyan campaign
provides only a sample. What the pub
lie reads, and hears over the radio, about
the course of fighting is merely elabora-
ton of what official authority provides
snd what official censorship passes.
And the cue for the tragic misinfor-
nation about "Rommel's Rout" was pro-
vided by no less a person than Winston
Churchill who on June 2 read to the
House of Commons dispatch from Gen.
Auchinleck saying: There is no shadow
of doubt that Rommel's plans for his
initial offensive have gone completely
awry."
Under the circumstances it is not sur
prising that the House of Commons is
restive and that Mr.. Churchilrs con-
tinued presence in Washington at this
critical juncture is being criticized in
his own country. To hold the Prime
Minister personally responsible for this,
or earlier, military reverses would be in
every particular bitterly unfair. But it
must also be remembered that the very
essence of the democratic way of life is
blanket assumption of comprehensive re-
sponsibility on the part of the individual
who is intrusted by his fellow citizens
with comprehensive authority.
The enormous powers temporarily in