35 Days' Ignorance

When the news of the sinking of the aircraft tender Langley was released, there was hardly a newsman in Washington who had not known about it for weeks. They had kept the secret loyally--not a word had leaked into print. But there was every reason to question whether their silence had made any sense.

The news of the U.S. raids on Wake and Marcus Islands (TIME, April 6) had been withheld for about four weeks--setting a precedent for the 35-day delay in the case of the Langley. But in the island raid there were plausible grounds for delay--to conceal from the enemy the whereabouts of the raiding task force until it had reached port and again gone out about its business. In the case of the Langley there were no such grounds.

Japanese bombers had been over her for hours. Within 24 hours the Japanese High Command must have known the Langley's whereabouts--on the bottom--but the U.S. public was kept in the dark for 34 days more.

Reason for this anomalous situation was that the Navy was abiding by OFF policy, conceived in humanity, that ship sinkings should not be announced until next-of-kin of all casualties had first been notified. The Langley's casualty list was hopelessly snarled when her survivors, rescued by the Pecos, were plunged into the sea again when the Pecos, in her turn, went down. The story was finally broken, because the longer it was withheld the more would public confidence be shaken in the Government's candor about bad news, but even after 35 days the casualty lists were not fully straightened out--if some of the survivors got to Java or other enemy-held islands, their fate may not be known until after the war.

After this reductio ad absurdum, the Navy will probably be permitted next time to break the news of ship losses as soon as it is sure that the enemy knows.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.