Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1945-05-09

Fiasco al SHAEF' in
Reims Arrangements
1.-THE following dispatch By
Raymond Danieu OF the NetU
York Times tpds made available
TO the Associated Press By the
Times because OF widespread in
terest in the controversy oUer the
,,etDs policies OF supreme heed
quarters, American Expedition
airy Force. The Times published
the article today under the head
ing, "Fiasco by SHAEF at Rheims
Is Bared."j
PARIS. May 8.-The dawn oI
peace In Europe found SHAEF press
relations officers in state of oper
war with newspaper correspondents
For the manner in which the last
big story Of this war was covered
for the American people under the
direction of Brig. Gen. Frank Aller
can only be described as one of the
greatest flascos yet in a long his
tory of laundering bureaucracy.
And so, while mobs outside the
Hotel Scribe. which is SHAEF press
headquarters. shouted themselves
hoarse in the streets. correspondents
were losing their voices too in angry
meetings trying to whereas" Gen
Allen into limbo and squabbline
among themselves over what pun
ishment should be melted out to
those among them who had violated
the rules and regulations prescribed
for their behavior by the Army.
Resolutions of Protest.
Resolutions of protest were a dime
a dozen in the lobby all day yester-
day and today, and credentials were
being lifted and restored at such a
pace that, when one newspaperman
met another, instead of commenting
on the weather they were more
likely to ask:
Are you still accredited?"
The Associated Press was very
much in the doghouse for splitting
the beans prematurely in alleged
violation of censorship and the most
solemn agreements. For most of the
day its whole staff was suspended
and forbidden to attend any brief
ings or to send even messages to
the New York office explaining this
sudden and unaccustomed silence.
The APP correspondents were rein
stated however. before the official
announcement that the war was over
all of them, that is, except Ed
ward Kennedy, their bureau man
ager, who made no bones about the
fact that it was he who evolved the
method which Army intelligence is
still investigating for beating the
gun on the surrender story.
Building Doghouse for Allen.
The Associated Press staff was not
alone in the doghouse. There were
other correspondents in there, too,
for having visited Berlin and writing
about what they saw in the Russian
zone of occupation without official
SHAEF chaperonage. The CORE
spondents themselves were building
their own doghouse to house only
Gen. Allen, who so arranged things
that out of Is places for correspond
ents at the signing of the surrender,
only three went to American news
paper agencies, and not one indi-
vidual newspaper was represented
legally, although space was found
for four American broadcasters. {
AS the aftermath of that, the
correspondents held an indignation
meeting this morning at the Scribe,
and Charles Wertenberger of Time
introduced resolution which was
seconded by Drew Middleton of the
New York Times declaring that re-
porters at SHAEF no longer had the
slightest degree of confidence in the
public relations division of SHAEF
or in its director, Gen. Allen. How
ever, action on this resolution finally
was deferred.
Correspondents Never Liked Plan.
Gen. Allen defended himself on
the ground that the Anglo-Ameri-
can press committee had approved
the list of correspondents who were
admitted to the room where the
surrender took place. There were
two things wrong about that, how
ever. The first was that the Amer
lean correspondents upon whom the
list had been imposed by the Army
last December had made reserva-
tons in writing.
And another was that the plan
that was used for the surrender
story had been drawn up originally
for an entry into Berlin, which was
quite a different matter, because
that was a story that could be COW
cred in phases. In other words, II
only few correspondents could
have been landed in Berlin the first
day, others could have been sent
In overland soon afterward.
The correspondents never liked
the Army's plan. but they accepted
it with reservations. What made
oi1OhA CoPCSAnAy dllS1y, ItUWcfcI, was
the fact that when the time came
for surrender, it was the Armys
plan for coverage in Berlin that
was adopted instead of an order
OF precedence drawn up at Dieppe
by the newspaper representatives
and followed ever since until last
Sunday night by the Army where
space was limited.
And so, at Rheims last Sunday
night, when the Germans signed or
the dotted line, the only American
newspaper witnesses present were
representatives of international
News Service, the United Press ane
the Associated Press, except fol
Price Day of the Baltimore Sun, whs
won his place by the flip of coir
after the British Exchange Tele.
graph Agency representative de.
cided that he had a prior engage.
ment.
To even things up, after it wa.
pointed out to him that Days pres.
ence put other Representatives O
newspapers behind the eight ball
Gen. Allen ruled that Day coule
write his report for EXCHANGE Tele