The Press: 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]. . . ....

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