War Orders

Brigadier General Alexander D. Surles, lank, hook-nosed Chief of Army's Press Relations Section, addressed an audience of 50 Washington correspondents, called to an emergency meeting a few hours after announcement of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The subject was censorship.

Gravely General Surles came to the point. "Our relations in the past have been very pleasant. Now we reach a new phase in those relations. All irresponsibility must stop . . . it has become necessary for the War Department to invoke the act of June 15, 1917 [Espionage Act]. . . . Now, all loose observation of our regulations must cease. I don't want, even now, for the word 'censorship' to be used, unless it becomes absolutely necessary. Restrictions are necessary. Restrictions are what we are imposing tonight. They must be observed. . . ."

These "restrictions," if literally observed, would prevent the press from printing virtually any war news of actions in which the U.S. Army took part. Probably the Army did not mean them that literally and the press was still too busy with the first news to give them much thought. Soon Army and press would have to reach some workable understanding on the handling of war news.

Some complicating factors as the U.S. press went on a wartime footing:

> A possible precedent in war reporting was set last week when Army sent its own press chief, Lieut. Colonel Stanley J. Grogan, to cover U.S. occupation of Dutch Guiana, to which no other reporters were invited.

> In Manila Lieut. General Douglas MacArthur called in all correspondents a few days before fighting began, promised ringside seats in event of war, provided they were willing to risk being killed.

> Though Far Eastern correspondents reported big damage to the Pacific Fleet, the Navy and Army in Washington refused to comment, referred reporters to the bare communiques issued by the White House.

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