Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1945-05-10
Il Might Be.
|WrOng--But
P. G. STROMBERG

We DAY has come and gone
not once, but two or three
times. Most of the excitement
and thrill came with the false
report on Saturday, April 20.
This served to take the edge off
any celebrating spirit. Then all
last week there were rumors and
denials with official statements
warning the pub
We Day lie to accept vic
Has Come tory only when
And Gone so proclaimed by
the Presid n t.
And yet, on Monday, May 7th,
another unofficial" news re-
lease of German surrender caused
the hopeful citizenry to engage
in a second false We Day cele-
bration.
Mondays confusion is attri-
buted by the daily newspapers to
"bungled handling of censorship
in the SHEAF." No statement
ever made was more absolutely
unfair to our military than this
effort on the part of men charged
with giving news to the public.
1t is an attempt to whitewash
the unforgivable breach of con-
fidence on the part of the Asso-
ciated Press representative. 1t
is, as it were, an attempt on the
part of the biggest papers to
justify violation of confidence
given newsmen as a courtesy.
How could the Associated Press
scoop the world unless the AP
man ran out on his fellow work
ers? How can one man scoop
another when eight of them were
admitted to the room where the
surrender agreement was signed?
Americans everywhere have
BEEN impressed with the CAM
paign of Mr.. Kent Cooper, head
of the Associated Press, to have
freedom of news adopted as a
policy throughout the world. |
have heard Mr.. Cooper speak on
the subject and his reasoning
was. enthusiast
A.P. Man ically receiN ed.
Ran Out On The highlight of
Colleagues the argument is
that a well in
formed public is the most GER
tain means of maintaining inter-
national understanding. What a
setback A.P. Correspondent Ken
nedy has given the progress
made in this effort! He didn't
render a service to anyone.
Rather did he render a disservice
to the very people he is sup
posed to serve. He denied to the
people of the world the normal
thrill they would have had on
Tuesday morning, when, stimuli
taneously, President Truman and
Prime Minister Churchill an
nounced officially that the Ger
mans had surrendered uncondi-
tionally.' He placed all cores
pondents in a position of being
considered untrustworthy. His
defense that the imposition of
confidence was not properly with
in the realm of our Generals is
not only weak but asinine. 1t
would be better for newsmen
generally if the Associated Press
had condemned this act and ad-
mitted blunder.
A shivering fear must grip
the Japanese warlords today.
They are intelligent enough to
realize that we are giving them
a sound beating while carrying
on a major war in Europe. Then
what must await them when our
full strength plus the full
strength of the British is thrown
at their illgot-
War Only ten empire? But
Half Over the job for US
For Us still is big one
No country ever
fought war with such a long
supply line. For US the war is
not over. 1t is half over. The
boys who are indicted will tell
you that instead of it being over
the war is just starting for
them. And it is well for us all
to remember that until VI Day