New Information in Britain

In London it now looks as if the British Ministry of Information may eventually live up to its name--by an effective effort to give out instead of suppress information. To London newsmen--U.S. correspondents above all--this unexpected, startling, and almost miraculous change ranks with the major news of the war.

The beginnings of this change date from the start of the Battle of Crete, when

Lord Beaverbrook, in his new job as Minister of State, invited 30 U.S. correspondents to luncheon at Claridge's, told them not to mince words about the M.O.I. He heard plenty: of long-rankling complaints of cables and pictures needlessly held up anywhere from 24 hours to indefinitely; of months of diplomatic finagling necessary to interview key men; of flat refusals to requests to cover R.A.F. bombings, bomb disposal squads and the like.

I.N.S. Correspondent Merrill ("Red") Muller declared with heat that the picture censorship "stinks." Collectively the correspondents tore their hair over the futilities of the M.O.I.

Manifestoed Quentin Reynolds: "Frankly we are puzzled. . . . We know what America wants. We want to tell them. . . . But we are not allowed to tell it. America is news hungry for the facts! We're a weapon. Why don't you use us?"

Beaverbrook took it all without batting an eye. A week later things began to happen. Ministers, amazingly humanized, became accessible. First Lord Alexander appeared in person at a routine Admiralty press conference. Correspondents got permission to enter erstwhile news no man's lands. M.O.I, released films and still photographs from cold storage.

And not only in London did M.O.I. bestir itself. In the U.S. the British information services got a new Director-General. He was Sir Gerald Campbell, unofficious, efficient No. 2 British diplomat in the U.S. Like Beaverbrook, at his first press conference in Manhattan he told newsmen to fire away.

Shortly to be transferred to a new branch office in Chicago is Graham Hutton, blond, 36-year-old ex-editorialist of the London Economist, well known to U.S. lecture audiences. Expected to follow him to the U.S. is David Bowes Lyon, the Queen's brother. Strongly resembling the Queen, handsome, intelligent, good-humored Bowes Lyon made his name for efficiency and helpfulness as press officer of the Economic Warfare Ministry.

Since Beaverbrook took a hand in M.O.I, there has been many a rumor that he intends to take over Duff Cooper's job as Minister of Information. London corre spondents think it unlikely that Beaverbrook will do more with M.O.I, than play the super-coordinator. But for the first time in World War II they are hopeful of evening the score in their one-sided contest with M.O.I. censors, red tape and buck-passing civil servants.

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