3. (i) PRESS AND CENSORSHIP .

Although there was a considerable amount of work under the heading of Press Relations from the date on which the Regional Office was set up, it was not until the appointment of a Press Officer on 27th November, 1939, that the Press work began in earnest. We were fortunate in securing the services of an officer who was Secretary of the local N.U.J. and therefore already well known to the local Press.

A system of cuttings from newspapers published in the area was inaugurated and Summaries were circulated twice weekly (increased later to three times weekly). These cuttings and Summaries became invaluable to the Regional Commissioner and the Heads of the various Government Departments in the Region. The first Intelligence Reports prepared in the Region were based on the Press Officer's review of the newspapers of the Region.

One of the most important preoccupations of the Press Officer was to get going an emergency news distribution in case the Region was cut off from London. This was done by enlisting the help of the Regional newspapers. The Region was divided into seven zones, each with a newspaper through which news was to be distributed to other newspapers. The centre zone newspaper and the other selected newspapers would then get out what we gave them in bulletin form, and arrangements were made for the Police to put up the bulletins on the Regional Commissioner's boards. Special M.O.I. Notice Boards were considered unnecessary in this Region.

The remaining activities of the Press Department may be summarised as follows:-

Censorship Advice .

This probably meant seven or eight telephone calls a day for the sixty odd newspapers in the Region. As we had no Censorship Unit here, queries which could not be answered by commonsense or from the routine information sent us from London had to be referred telephonically to London.

Our Censorship Advice service undoubtedly did a great deal to consolidate us with the Press.

Another useful feature was “Lines from All Fronts”, a write-up of stuff sent us from London to suit local taste issued at regular intervals.

Considerable time was expended in giving advice to editors as to how to explain war restrictions, etc., etc.,

Helping newspapers to secure or retain manpower and to secure machinery and paper made steady demands upon our time, as did Press work for other Government Departments in connection with campaigns, exhibitions, grievances etc., etc.,

Newspapers frequently needed our co-operation in regard to securing alternative printing establishments, alternative P.A. lines, etc. Here also we took the initiative in order to be sure that the papers were taking full advantage of facilities offered to them. We also fought many “manpower” battles for our Press.

For “D” Day we acted in regard to traffic arrangements as representatives of the Press in seeing that the arrangements did not interfere unduly with their distributing machinery.

Press Pass Problems , from the Reporters’ Green Cards to special Permits for “D” Day, also gave us considerable work.

We were supposed to be able to warn the Press about visits of Royalties and other notabilities, but often, owing to the inability of London to warn us, we were unable to do this, and then we had to act as best we could as a buffer between an irritated Press and the appropriate Authorities in London.

The Press Department spent a considerable amount of its time reading the local Press, partly in order to adapt its hand-outs to local taste, partly to report to the scrutiny section of censorship, and partly in order to prepare the Press Summary which went out three times a week to 30 the Government Departments in the Region and was found to be most useful to them, for obvious reasons.

It should be added that for local reasons we were unable to use voluntary workers for our Press Summary and Press cutting work.

The Press Department also placed the advertisements for our M.O.I. Films.