The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1944-01-27
With
The AEF
BY HAL BOYLES

ten by Kenneth Dixon, is writ.
ton today by Hal Boyle
ALGIERs, (Delayed) -tR-Tber.
are two attitudes in any army to.
ward the public and the press.
One group feels that the arm,
is the paid agent of the peonl.
and that they have a right to Ill
the news about the war Within
the limits of their own milit.u.
security. The other group, a mi
nority but an extremely powerf',
element, takes the attitude -
public and pres. be damned W.
will tell them what they ouub,
to know"
One Of the stoutest warriors !,
the fight to let the British and
American people know more about
their own war has been COL Tobn
Victor Mccormack. diminutiva
military spokesman at Allied forcs
headquarters here.
The little British officer, wbo
has ceiling barely above fvs
feet in clear weather, has baon
consistent foe of the stuffed sb;rt
fringe in Allied official circ1as
which favors suppression Of mill
tary information beyond the dailv
communicates and 'hero" storie.
1.-THE enemy already knows 70
! per cent Of the information Gen.
sored out of news dispatches
Mccormack argues. 1T is better
to clamp down on a few thinpz
that really should be kept secret
than it is to try to censor everv.
thing. Then nothing really re.
mains secret"
Little Mac" is an admirer q,
General Dwight D. Eisenhower
fountainhead of the generally lib.
eral press policy which has pre-.
vailed through most of the North
African, Sicilian and Italian cam.
paigns.
The only black eye AFHQ got
with the public came when sub.
ordinate of Eisenhower took it
upon himself to issue an equivocal
and misleading statement on the
Patton case, a statement that the
general himself would never have
put forth. AS a result, the Pat.
| ton case became the army's Pearl
Harbor in the field of public re.
lations.
Few staff officers think they
dig a better slit trench or Operate
tank better than the soldies
under them, but many have The
illusion that they can handle
the public better than the public
relations officers. They barge into
situation only to learn to their
sorrow that the public is con-
trary critter who doesn't have to
salute them or anybody else and
has a lot of funny ideas about
rights.
Little Mac is most skillful
at bridging the gap between bat
tlefield and newspaper. He rea'
Lies he had a two way respon'
sibility-to the army and TO the
public.
Mccormack and his deputy, Ma.
jor Daniel Frederick "Floody
Flood, 46, have been together since
1899 and handled field press re-
lations for the British during the
French campaign. "Floody" has
a son in Upper Darby, Pa.
IT did three excavations from
France said Mac. "Once from
Calais, once from Dunkerque and
! after the armistice, third one
from Brest. What ever else, I'm
good at excavations.
The colonel has stepped on a
number of toes in his lifelong dis.
regard for red tape. Toadstool
personalities dislike him for the
scimitar quality of his Irish WILL
his sense of proportion and the
fight he has waged for more N
telligent release of war news Inc
burr that dWells on every irish
tongue sometimes gets him III
warm water.
Last summer he was accom-
panying a group of correspondents
covering King Georges tour Oh
North Africa. At one stop 'hs
local general had made absolute
ly no arrangements to feed me
press party. Apparently the cor,
respondents were to forage OIL
the countryside like Arabs.
When the time to depart arrlVeu
Little Mac" turned to the COM
mander and told him blandly;
General, 1 find it extremely
difficult to congratulate you OIL
the quality of your accommoo%
tons"
1t took the general little time
but he felt the blade.
After so years of roaming arouhu
the empire, Mac met and fell III
love with an American girl anu
now he's determined TO marry
her "even if it entails becoming
citizen of the United States
u