Evening star., 1943-05-23
Bv GOULD LINCOLN,
Star Staff Correspondent

HOT SPRINGS, Va, May o.
Forty reporters for metropolitan
dailies and the press associations
who for a week have been covering
the United Nations Conference on
Food and Agriculture under trying,
if pleasant circumstances, found
some consolation today.
1t was announced that hereafter
they will be permitted to visit the
lobby and dining room of the HON.
stead, where the sessions are being
held and delegates reside, between
the hours of 6 and 9 pm, provided
there are no executive meetings in
progress.
The circumstances for the news
men, during the week, have been
pleasant, since, from President Mar
win Jones of the conference on down
the line of officials and delegates,
only courteous treatment has been
accorded them.
Ban Attributed to President.
The trying part of the job, par
TALLY lifted today, stemmed from
an order that the newspaper cor
respondents were not to be admitted
to the huge hotel where the dele
gates live, eat and work. There is
not a newspaperman here who does
not believe that this order was i'm
posed on the press by President
Roosevelt, referred to here as a
higher authority" by officials who
were unwilling to be more specific
in reference to it's origin.
The correspondents do not relish
being treated like Ali Baba's forty
thieves AS the order banning them
from the Homestead was in reality
ban on the free gathering of news,
and, as such, an oblique attack i'm
pinging on the freedom of the press,
they protested again and again. But
the deadline is maintained by SOL
diers of the United States Army.
Today's announcement followed a
gradual withdrawal of the more
harsh restrictions on the press at
the conference but the announce
ment by Chairman Jones still forbids
the newsmen to visit delegates in
their rooms. 1t permits them to eat
in the hotel dining room between
6 and and "if they like, talk with
any delegate who wants to talk"
Press Quarters Ample.
The big Casino of the hotel, which
lies seventy-fve or a hundred yards
from the portals of the hotel, is
press headquarters, ample and COM
modious, with a big central room
where the reporters write, and wide
porches. In it telegraph wires have
been installed so that dispatches
may be sent promptly.
Telephones are placed at inter-
walls, half dozen or more. These
may be used by the reporters to
call the rooms of the delegates.
either to question them on the
telephone or to invite them to come
to the Casino to be interviewed
Each reporter has been furnished a
complete list of all the delegates.
representing As countries, and of
each member of the Secretariat. Op-
posite every name is placed the
number of the room in which the
delegate or official lives.
This sounds easy. The difficulty
lies in the fact that the delegates
are rarely in their rooms, except to
sleep. Literally, some of the re-
porters have tried for hours to reach
a particular delegate.
One enterprising correspondent
adopted the idea of sending tele-
gram to delegate not more than
a hundred yards away and so
reached him. Others have followed
suit, But even that is cumbersome.
Newspaper headlines in Offices
throughout the country come and
go without the news which other
wise they might have had.
Argument Falls Flat.
A reason given for this extraor-
binary ban on free access to dele