Evening star., 1943-12-02

VvG VCW9 lCok VII
Cairo Conference
Continued From First Page.)
the same way that newspapers ant
radio stations were.
The British press and radio wer,
even worse OF. While publicity
channels in this country at least ha<
the benefit Of the Lisbon tipon, q
did the rest of the world, the British
censors refused to permit circulat tior
Of even this bit of news in theil
own country until last night, ant
they were hearing from the outlyinf
precincts today.
Correspondents at the scene of tn
tri-partite parley in Cairo ais,
Clipped in with their two cent
worth because Of the restriction
under which they were forced t,
operate. The London News Chron
icle correspondent embellished hi
complaint with the remark tina
when the full story is published
the name of the British Ministry O
Information is going to stink from
one end Of the United States to thl
other"
owl Chief Davis was reported t.
have sent note Of protest over tn,
Lisbon episode to Rrendan Bracken
British Minister of Information, il
charge of British censorship, ane
Representative Carlson, Republican
OF Kansas, egged on by one Of hi!
newspaper-operating constituents
likened the situation here on thi!
occasion to the delayed reports or
the Toxic air raid and the Pattor
soldier -slapping incidents.
The Davis-Brackep phase Of the
controversy was attracting most at.
tention.
Reuters explained that its Lisbon
announcement was simply journals
tic enterprise, but Mr.. Davis re-
jected the explanation. The owl
head, plainly indignant, declared
that American newspapers had the
full story but complied with ofiicial
requests that it be held up until last
night.
Mr.. Davis made it clear that he
felt the fault lay with British CEN
sorship in London.
Later the London Daily Telegraph
said an official investigation was be-
ing made Of the premature publica-
ton overseas" While the Reuters
dispatch was withheld from British
newspapers, it was relayed to over
seas clients Of the service, including
those in this country.
There was no comment immedi-
ately forthcoming from Owl on the
action of the Bayonne, N. j., Times
which published the official White
House announcement in advance OF
the release time. Asserting the time
restriction had been violated not
alone by foreign and domestic news
agencies" but by the Owl itself, the
Bayonne newspaper said it acted
'on a conviction that the people of
the United States are entitled to
news as we'll as any other country in
the world
Representative Carlson had this
to say:
Instead of getting news from for
eign capitals we should get it more
direct.
We've had too many releases of
Owl that smack of the Toxic raid
incident and the Patton incident.
We should at least have the news
at the same time as the foreign
capitals"
Raid Kept Secret for Months.
Maj. Gen. James H. Doolittle's
bombing Of Toxic was kept secret
for months for security reasons.
The story Of how 1t. Gen. George
S. Patton, jr., berated two soldiers,
cufdng one, was held up In Africa
after Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower
told correspondents he thought It's
disclosure would be helpful to the
enemy.
Representative Carlson was
moved to comment on the situa-
tion by telegram from Ray Green,
publisher of the Concordia, Kans.,
Blade Empire, which said:
Believe Elmer Davis and his
owl kicked American newspapers
around about enough. Handling OF
news on tri-power conference
smacks very much of childs play
for which American taxpayers are
paying dearly.
Idea of ordering papers to hold
story from Tuesday morning until
7:30 pm. Wednesday when all Eu-
rope knows details is plain silly and
tends to destroy all confidence in
press and Owl also.
Suggests Congress Watch Funds.
Suggest Congress might scruti-
nize Owl appropriations more care
fully in future to determine
whether necessary and whether
money is to be used to defray ex-
penses of playing with news reports
"Also suggest Owl reports be re-
leased at some hour when news
papers have a chance to compete
with radio which seems to be favored
on all big news breaks by Davis"
Mr.. Carlson said Owl "absolved
themselves of all blame with the
explanation that the Allied capitals
had agreed on the date and hour
for release of the story and also
that the agency denied the radio
lis getting the breaks on the news" "
The report of the Davis protest
to Mr.. Bracken followed an earlier
statement by Mr. Davis that he
would do everything feasible" to
protect the American press from
being scooped on interallied news
while holding to this country's CEN
sorship code Asked specifically
what he planned to do, he would not
elaborate.
Two Big Objections.
Making no effort to hide his indig-
nation, Mr.. Davis said the Reuters
story was Objectionable for two
reasons:
l. American newspapers had the
full story, including the agreements
reached, at the time, but were bound
not fo s,,.i,,t II hx, 1r,o r,, ~ oe ~ fokn