‘FAILED’ STATES AND THE ENVIRONMENT Articles ‘The silence of the Sphinx’: The delay in organising media coverage of World War II ABSTRACT None of those New Zealand men who served as official war correspondents in World War II are alive today to tell their stories. It is left to the media historian to try and piece together their lives and actions, always regret- ting that research had not started sooner. Sadly there is more information available about World War I and the life and actions of Malcolm Ross, the country’s first official war correspondent, than there is about New Zea- land’s World War II correspondents. Nevertheless, remembering the work of these journalists is important, so this is a first attempt at chronicling the circumstances surrounding the appointment of the first of the official correspondents, John Herbert Hall and Robin Templeton Miller, for the 1939-45 conflict. The story of the appointment of men to cover the war, whether as press correspondents, photographers, artists or broadcasters, is one of ‘absurd delays’ which were not resolved until nearly two years of the war had passed. Keywords: journalism history, New Zealand, newspapers, public relations, war correspondence ALLISON OOSTERMAN Auckland University of Technology HIS preliminary research focuses solely on the appointment of those official New Zealand correspondents sent expressly to cover the actions Tof the 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force (NZEF) troops and covers up until the establishment of the Public Relations Office in May 1941. Many reporters PACIFIC JOURNALISM REVIEW 20 (2) 2014 187 pjr_20_2_October_2014 final.indd 187 31/10/2014 6:32:59 p.m. ‘FAILED’ STATES AND THE ENVIRONMENT enlisted and were drafted in to perform journalistic functions such as editing troop newspapers or acting as public relations officers. Newspapers did have men in London, such as Alan Mitchell who acted for the consortium of The New Zealand Herald, Otago Daily Times, Press and Evening Post, but these will not be con- sidered here; nor will the photographers, artists, broadcasters or film makers. What is also not going to be considered are the New Zealand men or women who were war correspondents writing for other nations’ newspapers; for ex- ample, New Zealand-born journalists such as Osmar White, Lachie Macdon- ald and Kate Webb who wrote for Australian papers (Anderson & Trembath, 2011; McDonald, 1998). In the light of these provisos, Malcolm Ross, as the first ever official war correspondent, will be highlighted before considering the appointment of the first of the World War II official war correspondents. This article will not provide a wider context to New Zealand’s participation in the war and the role of newspapers in it. That will be included in later research, once all the official correspondents of the war have been identified. War correspondence prior to World War II The history of New Zealand’s war correspondence up to 1918 has been covered in the thesis Malcolm Ross: From the peaks to the trenches (Ooster- man, 2008) and in a previous article in Pacific Journalism Review(Oosterman, 2010) and was largely a refutation of the claim in The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Military History (McGibbon, 2000) that New Zealand had not established any ‘strong tradition’ of war correspondence. But clearly the New Zealand press did see the importance of covering war, both within New Zealand, during the land wars, and abroad, even when New Zealand troops were not involved and despite the great cost to the newspapers. A tradition was established—that of the soldier journalist, such as Claude Jewel who re- ported the South African War of 1899-1902, or that of the civilian journalist, such as Malcolm Ross, the official war correspondent of World War I, plucked from a freelance contract or a newsroom to cover armed conflict. A rarity was any newspaper independently sending their own journalists, although the New Zealand Herald and Auckland Star did send journalists Fred Carr Rollett and James Cowan respectively to cover the Samoan ‘troubles’ in 1899. One New Zealander, Rhodes Scholar Geoffrey Cox, covered the Spanish Civil War for the News Chronicle and the outbreak of war in Europe for the Daily Express (Purser, 2008), but did send back at least one despatch to New Zealand papers. 188 PACIFIC JOURNALISM REVIEW 20(2) 2014 pjr_20_2_October_2014 final.indd 188 31/10/2014 6:32:59 p.m. ‘FAILED’ STATES AND THE ENVIRONMENT He wrote a regular column, Behind the Cables, with John Mulgan, for the Auckland Star and in one described his three-week experience in Madrid during the Spanish Civil War (Cox, 1936). This was unusual. It was more common for newspapers to band together to send a journalist to a war zone, but it was usually the cost that brought that journalist home, as happened with J. Elder Moultray and James Shand sent by a consortium of the Otago Daily Times, The Press and The New Zealand Herald to cover the South African War. When Ross became the country’s first official war correspondent in 1915, a new concept in war correspondence was introduced; that of the state-appointed and paid war correspondent. World War II was to embed the concept of enlisted men acting as correspondents. In World War II ‘almost all of them were recruited to the typewriter while shouldering arms in the field’, as it was put by the New Zealand Journalists’ Association (Association, nd). The appointment of World War I’s official war correspondent When New Zealand declared war on Germany in 1914, New Zealand news- papers were immediately keen to ensure coverage of the war would be pro- vided not just by overseas journalists but by their own, especially of the actions of the country’s own forces. The Imperial War Office had given per- mission for one correspondent from each Dominion to be accredited. Quick- est off the mark to put a name forward was the consortium of newspapers mentioned previously, dubbed the New Zealand Associated Press, which re- commended Guy Scholefield, currently in its London office. When Parliament heard that on the recommendation of the High Commissioner in London, and agreement by Cabinet, but without further consultation, Scholefield’s name had been forwarded as war correspondent to the War Office, the opposition party of Joseph Ward was incensed. He was also furious that Malcolm Ross, under the auspices of the NZAP, had embarked with the NZEF in the action to take German Samoa in August. Ward argued that the correspondent should be representative of all sections of the press. He also demanded that there should be no discrimination and any selection should not be made in favour of a par- ticular political party (Expeditionary force: Press correspondents, 1914). The press should come together and vote on who should be that journalist, just as Australia had done when its press chose Charles Bean. Scholefield’s name was withdrawn and in an attempt to break the impasse, another contender was proposed by the government, H. T. B. (Bertie) Drew, the recent editor PACIFIC JOURNALISM REVIEW 20 (2) 2014 189 pjr_20_2_October_2014 final.indd 189 31/10/2014 6:32:59 p.m. ‘FAILED’ STATES AND THE ENVIRONMENT and proprietor of the Manawatu Daily Times who now worked on the Even- ing Post (Bell, 1915). That met with a flat rejection from the United Press Association. Political tensions ran high; neither political party could agree on who should be chosen, the newspapers were determined it would be some- one all papers could accept. This contretemps had lasted nearly seven months and was covered extensively in the country’s newspapers. It was eventu- ally left to the government to propose a committee of two editors from each political persuasion to meet to consider the 46 candidates and choose the best two with the final decision being Cabinet’s. Cabinet approved Malcolm Ross and in April he became the country’s first official war correspondent, eight months after the declaration of war (War correspondent Mr Malcolm Ross appointed,1915). His was not a popular appointment and it was greeted by much derision from such papers as The Observer and Truth (Appointment of war correspondent, 1915; Our war correspondent, 1915). As a personal friend of the Prime Minister William Massey, Ross was seen as a govern- ment booster and as a freelancer, was not seen as having the necessary skills for such a position. Ross reached Gallipoli in June, hampered by the of- ficial requirement that he send his despatches by boat rather than cable, but given relative freedom by General Sir Ian Hamilton, the officer commanding the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, to bivouac with the New Zealand troops rather than be confined to an offshore island like other correspon- dents. (Charles Bean was also given the same dispensation.) Intense political rivalry between the government and the opposition was reflected in the press coverage of the whole appointment process. No punches were pulled in the debate which flourished in all the papers during the whole period. While most saw it as a certainty that prominent journalist Malcolm Ross would get the nod for the position as war correspondent there was con- siderable cynicism in many circles about his appointment. This did not fade and continued throughout the war. Despite many demands for his recall and despite requests that more correspondents be appointed, he remained the sole representative of the New Zealand press at Gallipoli and on the Western front for the duration of the war. Palestine, where New Zealand troops fought, was never covered. Press coverage of the appointment of the official World War II correspondents There has been little research into the appointment of New Zealand’s World War II correspondents.