Parlement

Tom Driberg MP and columnist Carbon Copy of part of a heavily corrected private ms. account of censorship on the visit by King George V to the BEF in France in Dec. 1939 by the Daily Express journalist Tom Driberg.

rif. 13238 — Without date or place. 6pp. 4to numbered 4-9. Carbon copies on six leaves. In fair condition on aged and creased paper. The account does not appear to have been published and indeed could not have been published during wartime. It may be that it was written for an editor at the Daily Express but the extent of revision and emendation suggests that it was written with an eye to publication after the war. The first page numbered 4 begins after an eight-line deleted passage: 'Reynold's second-in-command is Major Mc.Cormack a whimsical helpful little Northern Irishman with strong Evangelical views. He & the four Chief Press Officers handled me amiably enough; none individually seems responsible for the rows & inconveniences which occur daily. Then there are the Conducting Officers - hearty convivial cavalrymen who wouldn't profess to know much about any periodical but the Field & Country Life. One of them said to me the other night "Hickey . . . . Oh yes I've read your stuff. You do cats in the Sunday Times don't you" Research established that he was referring to Nat Gubbins in the Sunday Express. Some of the reporters find this Bullingdon manner a little overwhelming; others say that they are useful on the job since they are on Christian-name terms with the OC of every unit visited.' At the foot of the first page he begins his description of how 'The King's visit brought the rows & inconveniences to a climax. To begin with elaborate arrangements had been made to keep all news of it secret till after he had returned to England. On the day the King sailed for France it was decided in London to release the news at once after all. But the first that PR in France knew of this decision was hours after the King's arrival when someone happened to be listening in & heard the news on the BBC.' Then the censorship fell into its most jittery mood. We were allowed to say that the news had been left secret till the King's arrival which was obvious. We were not allowed to say that the release came as a surprise to us in France: any hint that deprartmental co-ordination is not 100% perfect is regarded wrongly I think as dangerous. We were not allowed to quote even such amusing details as the pseudonyms by which for secrecy the King had been spoken of beforehand: even among ourselves we had to day "When Mr Harris arrives . . ."; some of the PR staff called him "Mr Big."' He addresses the reader: 'You have heard already of the curious fool arrangement by which glimpses of the King were rationed among the reporters.' He explains that the official description of the 'conference on the day the King lunched with Lebrun & Daladier' was 'not even accurate. There had been no exchange of toasts. There had been only one toast: the King as host had drunk the President of the Republic's health. The reporter put this in his story; found later to his fury that a censor had struck it out writing in instead the smug "Cordial toasts were exchanged".' He discusses the role of the censors. The last page numbered 9 concludes: 'Our reporters are annoyed by all this nonsense & tiresomeness; but its effect on the Americans is likely to be serious. . Red tape presented at least one glowingly pro-British news-agency story of the King's visit from appearing in 1500 newspapers mostly in America. The agency man was away that day. He asked another accredited war reporter to cover the story for him.' From the Driberg papers. See Image. Without date or place. unknown