The Waterbury Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1917-1946, 1943-02-16

Peter Edson the second revi-
sion Of the voluntary censorship
code, tightening up on diplomatic
exchange ship movements, prisoner
information and identification Of
troops-relaxing principally on pub
lication Of war production figures.
A case In point to show how Of
flee Of Censorship has battled
against silly restrictions broke in
washington the other day with the
publication Of a story on radio de-
vice which heretofore 1t has been
forbidden to mention even by name.
Call II, 1.-THE Thing"
Now 1.-THE Thing Is a truly Won
derful cortraption. But the facts are
that the principle Of 1.-THE Thing"
was discovered independently and at
about the same time by radio en-
gineers In Germany, Britain and
the United States. Basic patents on
1t have been taken out In all three
countries. These patents are q mat
ter Of public record and further
more, there have been technical ar.
ticles on 1.-THE Thing. Information
on 1t Is therefore a matter Of com.
mon knowledge.
That being the case, the Once Of
Censorship recently passed for pub.
lication, q short handout from the
American Council Of Public AZ
fairs, giving an excerpt from an ar
ticle prepared by DR.. Lyman Chalk
ley, now consultant In the engin.
eering division Of the Economic War.
fare Analysis branch Of the Board
of Economic Warfare.
CAME THE STORM
The article was In the main q ra-
Their dullish economic treatise, but
buried down in the middle was one
paragraph which not only men.
tioneH 1.-THE Thing" by name, but
told what 1t did, as follows:
Probably the most dramatic new
weapon to come out Of this war Is
'radar' ('The Thing), which can
detect planes at night, see naval
vessels through fog and darkness,
and do other remarkable things,
many Of them still secret"
When that broke, brass hats
started blowing their tops all over
Washington. What did DR.. Chalkley
mean by mentioning this forbidden
subjectP
What did they mean - forbidden
subject? DR.. Chalkley would have
them know that manuscript had
been approved for publication by
the Public Relations Office Of BEW
way last Junel
No one in BEW remembered It,
so Dr.. Chalkley was sent home to
md the original manuscript with
the ofticial okay on 1t. He did.
THE FINGER OF GUILT ,.
That put the finger on the Once
Of Censorship for passing the re-
lease from American Council Of
Public Affairs which had published
the Chalkley treatise In the first
place. But Once of Censorship
wasn't In the least perturbed. The
offlcial position OF the censors was
that they thought the subject
should be treated with little COM.
mon sense. All last fall, ONCE of
Censorship pointed out, the Navy
had been issuing full-page ads in
some Of the radio ham magazines,
seeking to enlist the electrically
minded youth Of the country to BE
a Radar Expert" And Admiral
Nimitz had made a speech, men,
tioning radar. With that back
ground, once of Censorship's &C.
ton gave notice to the services that
they were tired of being foolish.
It might be further pointed out
that the War Production Board has
a radio and Radar Branch" which
has its name on q door. \
The Army order putting the ban
on all mention Of THE Thing" goes
back to last November Specifically,
1t puts the ban on anything about
radar operations. But to go on from
there and put an absolute ban on
information which has already had
previous publication - that's what
Office Of Censorship objects to and
is protecting the press from.