Censorship Down Under

Australia's Prime Minister Robert Gordon Menzies has decided to reorganize Australia's wartime press censorship. Fortnight ago he started by kicking himself out of the job of Minister of Information and giving it to an inconspicuous British-born Senator (from Queensland), Hattil Spencer Foil. The most interesting part of the shake-up was that it followed the resignation of Australia's Lord Northcliffe --Sir Keith Murdoch, publisher of a chain of eleven Australian publications--as Australian press censor (Director-General of Information).

A tall, hearty man of military bearing is Sir Keith Murdoch, now 54. He lives in a big U. S. Colonial home outside Melbourne, owns a couple of sheep stations (ranches), collects paintings, silver, glass, Chinese ceramics. Born in Melbourne, son of a Presbyterian minister, Murdoch (not knighted till 1933) was doing pretty well as manager of a press cable service when he set out as a correspondent for the war in 1915. But he got his real start as an Empire bigwig when he landed in Britain, handed Lloyd George a confidential report on conditions in Gallipoli. Soon he was chatting with Cabinet ministers, generals, big businessmen in London, and Lord Northcliffe.

When he went back to Melbourne after the war, Murdoch sailed with the Prince of Wales on His Majesty's battle cruiser Renown. In 1920 he became editor of the Melbourne Herald, from then on loomed bigger and bigger in Australia's press.

The Herald is 100 years old. Though an afternoon paper, with a circulation of only 240,000, it is a sort of London Times in miniature. The "Murdoch press" has tentacles in three of Australia's six States, boasts a combined (daily & Sunday) circulation of more than 1,040,000--which is considerable on a continent of 7,000,000 inhabitants. But Sir Keith, except for a small interest in the Sydney Sun, has no newspaper holdings in New South Wales--a section as important in Australia as the Eastern coast is in the U. S.

Sydney's press feuds bitterly with Melbourne's. When Sir Keith, as Director of Information, issued decrees requiring newspapers to print anything the Ministry gave them, Sydney's press howled. It accused Sir Keith of using his official powers to muzzle rival newspapers. Cried the Sydney Telegraph in a page 1 editorial: "He is so used to getting a docile 'Yes, Sir Keith' from those who trot at his beck and call in Melbourne . . . that he expected the whole Australian people to bow down humbly and submit in the same way."

Astonished by the uproar was Sir Keith. Said he stiffly: "I should think that we would use these powers little if at all. . . ." Nevertheless, 48 hours after Sir Keith announced his decrees, they were withdrawn by Prime Minister Menzies. Sir Keith decided he had better resign and look after his own interests.

Senator Foil, Menzies' successor as Minister of Information, started his career as secretary to the Minister of Railroads in Queensland, fought in World War I until he was invalided out after Gallipoli, in 1919 served on a committee to investigate "The Effects of Intoxicating Liquors on Australian Soldiers." For three years (1926-29) he was the Government's Senate whip, last October was made Minister of Interior. None of these things made him a famous Australian. When the Information Ministry sent out a bulletin announcing the Menzies Cabinet in October, Senator Foil's name was given as Henry (instead of Hattil).

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