First Act

Rough as thistle and dour as dominie's broadcloth is the Scottish Presbyterian who last week took over as Great Britain's Minister of Information. No government but Britain's would put direct wartime control of newspapers and newspapermen in the hands of a man who hates newspapers and newspapermen as much as does Sir John Charles Walsham Reith. He is said once to have had a reporter fired for flying an airplane over the Reith house to take pictures. In one of his rare interviews he flatly declared that he never looked at a newspaper.

Last week newspapermen were anxious to find out what the Ministry of Information would be like under this sanctimonious Scot. As head of British Broadcasting Corp. from 1922 to 1938, he raised its programs to an all-time record for dullness.

He reprimanded or sacked employes who got drunk or were divorced. He once admitted: "The BBC has never attempted to give the public what it wants--it gives the public what it ought to have." As his first official act, the new Minister of Information last week had his "secretary," Sir Samuel Hood, throw reporters out of his office. A few moments later the bell of the Ministry's great hall rang three times, indicating an important announcement. The microphone boomed: "Sir John Reith cannot see journalists." Journalists chuckled at the choice of the word cannot.

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