Squeeze Eased

In putting the squeeze on correspondents, General MacArthur had pressed too tight. Amid an angry buzz of protest in Washington, California's Senator William F. Knowland charged that MacArthur was setting up an "iron curtain" to cut off any criticism of the occupation. Last week, Secretary of the Army Kenneth C. Royall stepped into the wrangle. He overruled MacArthur's new regulation that correspondents who left Japan on short trips throughout the Far East would lose their accreditation. Correspondents, said he, will be permitted to spend 30 days outside Japan every six months.

This was far from satisfactory to Tokyo correspondents. In the Far East, where distances are vast and transportation slow and uncertain, 30 days is not enough time for some assignments. Furthermore, Secretary Royall upheld MacArthur on another important point: correspondents could not use Japan as a base to cover surrounding areas. Although correspondents had been using Tokyo as such a base for two years, the only explanation for the change was the "housing shortage." But if quarters were short, newsmen asked: why did MacArthur last week lift all bars on travel to Japan for tourists and businessmen?

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