A History of the Ministry of Information, 1939-46
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MINISTRY OF INFORMATION (NORTHERN REGION).
REVIEW OF REGIONAL ACTIVITIES from 1939 to March 1946
By pre-arrangement with Professor John Hilton of Headquarters, Mr. V. Ewart Berry, Managing Director of the “Newcastle Chronicle Ltd.”, under a letter dated 3lst August 1939 was formally appointed Chief Regional Information Officer for the Northern Region and authorised to proceed with the appointment of staff. On September 6th an Executive Officer and two shorthand-typists commenced duties along with one male Officer, styled Liaison Officer, whose duties covered Publicity and Press Relations. Mr. J.S.W. Usher, H.M.I. was seconded from the Board of Education as Deputy Regional Information Officer.
Work was carried on in rooms set aside in the Newcastle Chronicle Offices, until the Office of Works was able to provide accommodation a week later at “Deneholme”, Clayton Road, Newcastle.
The functions of an increased staff were subsequently largely confined to Intelligence, Press matters, and preliminaries for the setting up of local Information Committees throughout the Region. A revision of official policy towards the end of October involved a reduction of the staff which had then reached 15 people, and the termination on October 31st of the appointment of Mr. Berry.
By Mid-December, Dr. A.E. Morgan was appointed Regional Representative. Mr. Usher returned to the Board of Education, and the office was moved to Pilgrim Street, Newcastle.
The following weeks were occupied in building up an organisation commencing with the appointment of Press and Publicity Officers in January 1940.
In May Professor Searls was appointed Deputy Regional Information Officer with the addition of a Meetings Officer, and accommodation was provided in Metrovick House.
Departments then commencing operations were Intelligence, Committees, Press and Censorship, and Meetings, to which four staff speakers were later attached.
The early months during which needs were being probed and policy defined, were utilised in making contact with Local Authorities, leaders of social organisations, industrialists, workers and Trade Unions, so that by mid-1940 immediate and practical progress was possible.
THE CRISIS OF 1940
It was not until early in 1940, with the German invasion of Norway, and Denmark, and later of Western Europe, and the advent of the Churchill Government, that the need for regional machinery became fully apparent and that any considerable development took place. The Regional Advisory Committee first met on June 4th, 1940, and the majority of the 23 local Information Committees were appointed during the early summer of that year.
Even now it is difficult for the ordinary member of the general public to appreciate the full extent of the danger with which we were then faced. At the time it was essential first to do everything possible rapidly to bring home to the man in the street the seriousness of the situation, the importance of the issues at stake, and the vital necessity of putting every ounce of effort into the national cause; and, to make preparations to deal with the emergency which might arise from enemy invasion or from continuous and sustained raiding from the air, and to provide adequate safeguards against the spreading of wild rumour, the cutting off of communications and news, and the panic movement of crowds which had contributed so largely to the fall of France.
DIRECT APPEAL
The first task was approached direct - by the spoken word and by leaflet and pamphlet. During that fateful summer and autumn and up to the end of the following June some 3,500 meetings were held in the open air - outside factories and shipyards, in mining villages, and wherever it was customary for a crowd to foregather, as well as nearly 1,000 indoor meetings for the general public or for voluntary associations of different kinds. Some 367,000 pamphlets and leaflets were also distributed in the Region, for paper was not then in short supply; the public was eager to have them, and they appeared to be read with care and interest.
The extent and nature of the response of the British People to the crisis
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in their fortunes is now a matter of history. The voluntary enrolment of over a million persons in the Local Defence Volunteers (later to become the Home Guard), the remarkable productive achievement of the industrial areas which at times in the North involved for many the working of a 12-hour day for seven days a week for several weeks on end - all these only the historian of the future can fairly assess. It is sufficient here to say that in this response the North of England played its full part.
INVASION PLANS
The main responsibility resting on this Ministry under the emergency plans for invasion or sustained and heavy raiding was to make sure that, if possible, under any conceivable conditions of dislocation, the public was supplied with reliable and accurate information. In this task the first and main line of defence was, of course, the Press, and tribute should be paid to the care and efficiency with which an elaborate scheme of mutual aid and alternative printing arrangements was worked out amongst the editors of the newspapers in the Region, in order that, whatever the difficulties, the papers would in fact come out. In case national broadcasts had to be suspended, three secret low-power transmitters were established by the B.B.C. at Newcastle, Middlesbrough and Scarborough, working on the 205 wave-length, and a direct line from the B.B.C. to the Ministry was installed. Northern Re-diffusion Services offered to put their network at the disposal of the Ministry and a microphone was installed at the Regional Office, from which broadcasts on this service could be given.
Had the Region been cut off from London by invading troops, or by other forms of enemy action, the Regional Commissioner had decided that all instructions, announcements and news from his own, or other Government Departments, should be issued through this Ministry. As an additional precaution, therefore, some 1,200 sites were selected, all under police supervision, for the exhibition of official Ministry notices and announcements, and a despatch rider system arranged throughout the Region whereby notices could be delivered and posted on these sites at least once in every twenty-four hours. A fleet of some 40 loudspeaker cars was hold in reserve so that in the event of panic developing, or other urgent need arising, they could be despatched to points of danger to work under the direction of Local Authorities and Chief Constables. In all, 71 Emergency Information Officers 176 4.were appointed in towns and the larger villages throughout the Region, to maintain contact between the Regional Office and the authorities in the different areas, and, in co-operation with the members of Information Committees, to assist them in securing that any official instructions, news or information reached the general public through one channel or another.
This organisation may now appear to have been unnecessarily elaborate. A careful study, however, of the methods adopted by the enemy in the invasion of France in order to create widespread confusion, and the results of several combined invasion exercises in which the Regional office of this Ministry took part, all went to show that the possibility of a serious dislocation and false instructions and rumours was very real and that these various safeguards were essential.
Apart from enemy invasion the emergency arrangements were also designed to give assistance in the event of serious dislocation caused by sustained and continuous air-raiding. There was a number of raids in the Northern Region, including the first and the last in the whole country, and considerable damage and loss of life resulted. But the raids were short and sharp rather than prolonged, and the preparations of the Local Authorities were such that no major dislocation ensued. The services of the Ministry, therefore, were called for to a very slight extent only.
During this period of increasing regional activity Dr. Morgan left to take up an appointment with the Ministry of Labour and National Service, and was succeeded by Professor T.H. Searls, as Regional Information Officer.
MOBILISATION OF MANPOWER
By the summer of 1941 the situation had changed. The immediate threat of invasion for the time being seemed to have diminished, and the direct appeal, which in the previous summer was necessary and welcomed, was now no longer suitable. The country had recovered its second wind, it was now settling down to an endurance test in what promised to be a long and difficult war, and was entering on the task of total mobilisation.
In this task of complete mobilisation of man and woman power, the policy of the Government appeared to be to rely first on the appeal for volunteers, and only when the need had been partially met in this way, and there was public
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criticism about the “slackers” who had not volunteered, then to introduce compulsion. In this way compulsory measures were taken in response to an articulate public demand, and enjoyed almost universal public support.
The Ministry was in consequence asked to assist in various campaigns, of which the most important perhaps were those for workers for particular war industries, and for voluntary enrolment in the Women's Services. In these considerable assistance was given by a number of the Information Committees.
In the earlier part of the war public attention had been largely focussed, as was natural, on the exploits of the Royal Air Force and the achievements of the Navy. In the summer of 1942 it was felt that there was some danger that insufficient public recognition had been accorded to the importance of the Army. This it was thought night have some influence on the success of the campaign then being launched for recruitment for the A.T.S. It was therefore decided, after consultation with the G.O.C., Northern Command, that the time was ripe for the organisation of a major military demonstration in association with this campaign, and what was probably the first large scale Service procession and demonstration of the war was organised in Newcastle on August 16th, 1941. The Princess Royal, The Secretary of State for War, and Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Information, the Adjutant-General, and a large number of distinguished visitors and Service representatives, attended. It was estimated that 200,000 people witnessed the parade through the streets of Newcastle, and an audience of 45,000 in addition attended the demonstration in St. James’ Park, which was addressed by the Princess Royal and the Secretary of State.
UNITED NATIONS
By the early summer of 1942 a somewhat different aspect of the war was stressed in the activities of the Ministry. Britain was now no longer fighting alone, but had been reinforced by powerful allies. The public interest in other countries was again active, and there was a remarkably lively and spontaneous response on the part of the Local Authorities to the appeal of the Cabinet - issued through the Ministry at very short notice - for the celebration of a United Nations Day on June 14th, 1942. A message from the Prime Minister was circulated, to be read to the public by the civic leaders, and celebrations 178 6.took place at 44 places in the Region.
Throughout the ensuing twelve months there was a notable demand for speakers from the Empire and Allied countries at Ministry meetings. The visit of Dr. Benes, the President of Czechoslovakia, and two of his Ministers, provided the occasion for a typical Northern welcome, as had the visit of the Russian Trade Union Delegation some months earlier, and as did the visit of the Chinese Official Mission at a somewhat later period. It seems to be generally felt in the Region that the visits of distinguished representatives from Allied nations, and the provision of a large number of visiting speakers of different nationalities, have contributed in no small degree to giving the public an increased sense of the future importance of international understanding and co-operation.
Probably the outstanding event in this sphere was the organisation of the Red
Army Day celebrations in Newcastle on February 21st, 1943. The tribute to the Red Army was paid not only by members of the general public, but by selected representatives of all aspects of the British war effort from the Fighting Services, the ship-building and munitions industries, the Civil Defence Services, to the British housewife. The representative gathering, which numbered over 3,500 people, was addressed by the Minister of Production, Mr. Oliver Lyttleton, and Mr. N. Fillin, Deputy Trade Representative of the Soviet Embassy, replied to the tribute to the Red Army.
The coming of American troops to this country, and the necessity for adequate provision for their entertainment and hospitality, affected the Northern Region very little It was only for a few short weeks that any numbers were stationed here, during which time assistance was given in launching an American Red Cross Club in Newcastle. The troops were, however, moved away very shortly afterwards, and the Club was closed down after only four or five weeks activity. The importance of Anglo-American relationships was, however, stressed on many occasions, notably by the Middlesbrough Committee in connection with the “America Marches” Exhibition, and in Newcastle at a Youth Conference of a unique character, organised by the Education Authority, for which the Ministry provided the speakers.
INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS
From the summer of 1943 to the opening of the European offensive in 1944 was a difficult period in the war. People were getting tired and there was considerable impatience for the opening of “the Second Front”. Production at this stage was obviously of vital importance, and considerable attention was given to industrial problems.
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The number of film shows given in factories was doubled, being increased from 60 to 120 a month, and much thought was directed to the type of speaker and the nature of the appeal suitable at this stage of the war for industrial establishments.
It had recently become apparent that there was a good deal of overlapping between the various Government Departments in the provision of what was then termed industrial publicity. The Northern Regional Board of the Ministry of Production, the meetings of which the Regional Information Officer had been attending, set up a standing committee comprising representatives of the various Government Departments concerned, and of employers and trades unionists, to co-ordinate publicity activities in factories and to consider more fully the problems involved. The Regional Information Officer was appointed Chairman of the Committee, which was administered from the Regional Office of the Ministry of Information, the Deputy Regional Information Officer acting as secretary. A number of conferences with labour and Personnel Managers, Welfare Officers, and Trade Union representatives, were held, and the quality of the facilities provided perhaps somewhat improved, in order to bring home to the worker more adequately the sense of the importance of his job in the war effort.
EXPLANATION OF GOVERNMENT POLICY
In this rather difficult period too, the Intelligence work of Committees and correspondents proved of special importance. Signs of tiredness amongst the general public became more frequent, shortages and restrictions proved more irksome, there was no longer the distraction caused by the danger of frequent air raids in the Region, and it was important to give the public without delay explanations of the difficulties with which they were faced. In this task Information Committees proved of great value. A large number of points raised by Committees were taken up with the Government Departments concerned, and an explanation given, while the numerous visits of officials of these Departments to the meetings of the Committees provided the opportunity of giving at least to a group of representative citizens, and through them to a wider public, an explanation of the broad principles behind the policies under discussion, and at the same time gave to the officials concerned a keener impression of what the public was thinking.
THE EUROPEAN OFFENSIVE
With the opening of the European offensive came a return of optimism and a sense that the end of the European War was now not far away, though the war with Japan still remained. There was an eager demand for news of the battle. During this period, therefore, the special features of the Ministry's work were twofold - to provide at Ministry meetings speakers with first-hand knowledge of the battle in Europe, and, secondly, to stimulate the public interest in the war with Japan, and through the speakers provided to maintain and develop the contact between the members of the public and the British Forces fighting in Burma and the Far East.
VISITORS TO THE REGION
In this summary of the main features of Ministry policy throughout the six years of war, emphasis has been laid on the task of providing information to the public in the North about what was happening in other parts of the world. In the last year or two, however, the Ministry had a steadily growing responsibility for showing visitors from many parts of the world what was happening in the North of England, and for letting them see something of its war effort and of its productive possibilities for the future. In nearly every case these visitors stated that they were greatly impressed with what they saw.
METHODS EMPLOYED
In carrying out the changing policies described, the Regional Office utilised all the services associated with the Ministry - meetings, film shows, exhibitions and display material, contacts with the Press, and the help of its Regional and Information Committees. Brief summaries of statistics of meetings, film shows and exhibitions throughout the period are given in the appendices attached hereto. A special word must, however, be said about the Press and about Committees.
THE REGIONAL PRESS
Throughout the whole period this Ministry had a special responsibility in relation to Press Censorship. This, it must be remembered, was purely voluntary, as there was no legal obligation to submit material. It is true that after publication of information of military value to the enemy a charge could be laid under the Defence Regulations, but serious damage to the national interest may then have been done. Much, therefore, turned on the restraint and patriotism of the Press. It is noteworthy that during the whole period of the war no serious
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complaint of a breach of censorship regulations was made against any of the 50 papers in the Northern Region. Nor had the collaboration of the Press been merely negative. A considerable number of Editors’ Conferences were held, and their support invited for particular campaigns required in the national interest. That support was given generously and without fail, and several hundreds of thousands of column inches of editorial space were given by newspapers in the Region, without any payment, to furthering the ends the Government had in view. The country owes much in this Region as elsewhere to the patriotism and generosity of the gentlemen of the Press.
INFORMATION COMMITTEES
The contribution which Information Committees made was perhaps not always clear to all their members. They were formed primarily perhaps in the early days to maintain contact with as many sections of the general public as possible under conditions of grave emergency. They were thus somewhat unique bodies in that they included representatives of the main political parties, leading figures in local government, representative persons from amongst employers and trades unionists in industry, and others drawn from the leading voluntary associations which are such an important feature of British social organisation. The good Information Committees were thus exceptionally representative of public opinion in its many shades. It was this representative quality which caused the B.B.C. to ask them to report on the public attitude to the new programme policy; several visiting speakers at the Durham Conference commented on the unusually representative character of the audiences there; and busy officials of other Government Departments usually welcomed the opportunity of meeting them.
In so far as the Ministry was able to adapt its policies rapidly to meet the needs of a changing situation, was in part due to the candid comment and constructive criticism it received from its Committees. They proved a safeguard against too much direction from the centre, and it was the policy of the Ministry throughout to leave much to local decision in the Regions. They provided essential local contacts and preserved the goodwill of the local communities in the tasks which had to be undertaken. Above all, in general they reflected public opinion in their areas, and without their contribution, the intelligence service of the Ministry would have been of far less value to the Ministers and Departments concerned.
PERIOD JUNE 1945 to MARCH 1946
On the cessation of hostilities there was a natural reaction on the part of the public, to many of the Ministry activities, and this was not, even in part, overcome until after the General Election in July 1945. As the year advanced there was increasing general apathy resulting from a feeling of insecurity of employment, largely generated by the process of industrial transition.
Interest was shown in some exhibitions such as “Mulberry”, illustrative of the invasion Harbours in Normandy, the Newcastle Farm Exhibition, and others in which a major or minor part was played by the Regional Office. At the request of the Military Authorities who were concerned about the rehabilitation of returned prisoners of war, we undertook to arrange facility visits to shipyards, factories, mines, farms and schools of agriculture, points of historic interest, etc. Of the firms approached by us, 140 expressed their willingness to participate in the scheme. In all, 182 visits were made, with an average of 50 ex-P.O.Ws per visit.
Resulting from Headquarters’ directive on the dissolution of the Information Committees, after a final meeting of each Local Information Committee, a valedictory meeting of the Regional Advisory Committee, and a joint Conference of Chairmen and Secretaries of local committees, were held on 14th July, 1945. Considerable regret was expressed by members of each committee at the termination of this unique experiment in democratic technique, and such a useful adjunct to the Ministry's activities.
With the closing down of the Press and Censorship Department, came the departure of the Press Officer in August, 1945. The distribution of a great volume of Officer Observer stories, and other press handouts on behalf of other Government Departments, along with many relics of the Press work, imposed a heavy burden on non-technical members of the staff.
The Intelligence work was also wound up, and Intelligence correspondents from Tees and Tyne met at final conferences in Middlesbrough and Newcastle on 11th and 13th September 1945, respectively.
On 10th August 1945, responsibility for running Ministry activities in Cumberland and Westmorland was formally undertaken. The Regional boundaries
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for other Ministries were similarly adjusted at a later date. Two mobile film units operating in Cumberland and Westmorland, hitherto included in the N.W. Region and controlled from Manchester, now became attached to Newcastle. With this accretion to the number of units, the monthly average of shows was immediately stepped up from about 250 to 350.
The end of 1945 saw the departure of Professor T.M. Searls, Regional Information Officer; be was succeeded by Mr. J. White Shand.
Over the period from the end of hostilities until the termination of the Ministry, apart from the Films Section, general activity slowed down.
Appendices ‘A’ and ‘B’ indicate the trend over these months, as well as the overall picture during the whole period of the Ministry's existence. An interesting fact is that a Ministry message, in one form or another, reached every person on the average, within the Regional boundaries.
The General Election, Industrial upheaval in the period of early transition from war to peace production and anxiety about future employment greatly interfered with our efforts to maintain the Regional Organisation.
Continued application for our services from a wide variety of Government Departments and Industrial and Voluntary Organisations seemed to indicate a public demand for the establishment of a permanent Government Information Service.
In carrying out during this period of over six critical years the main tasks previously described, together with many others which it has not been possible to enumerate, the Ministry in effect served as a channel of communication between those responsible for the formulation and execution of Government policy and the general public. Success would not have been possible without a close and cordial collaboration within the Region with the Government Departments concerned, with Local Authorities, and with the public at large. In this Region the spirit of collaboration in a great common enterprise was most noteworthy, and much was due to the leadership in this direction of the Regional Commissioner and his two Deputies. From them, from Lord Ridley in Industrial matters, from the regional officers of other Government Departments, from Local Authorities, from the Regional Committee and the Information Committees, and from countless members of the general public, the Regional Information Officer and his staff received unfailing collaboration. The spirit of co-operation was most marked, and to this was primarily due whatever success may have been achieved.