Morale in Malaya

Singapore censorship, long the tightest encountered by correspondents on any British front, reached a new high in hush last week. CBS's celebrated radio reporter, Cecil Brown (TIME, Dec. 22), had been "disaccredited" as a broadcaster by the British authorities at Singapore.

The meaning of this crackdown was both less and more serious than at first appeared. Cecil Brown was still permitted to file cables--in which, at the censor's discretion, he could still say about what he pleased aside from military matters.

British Military Intelligence in Singapore admitted, both to Brown and to a representative of the Ministry of Information, that the "pessimistic" tone of his broadcasts had been justified by the facts; also that the broadcasts had served to impress the U.S. with Singapore's predicament. Then why keep him off the air?

Brown's messages beamed at the U.S. could be heard, though faintly, at various points on the Malay Peninsula. "The effect of Mr. Brown's broadcasts," said the edict, "was detrimental to local public morale. . . ." Said the Ministry of Information spokesman: "Objective reporting and the local situation are irreconcilable."

The edict went on to say that "the manner of Mr. Brown's broadcasts over a period of months led the authorities to regard him as persona non grata." It appeared that Cecil Brown had been arguing with the censors, as he had argued before in Rome and also in Cairo. His silencing in Singapore, however, was the first case of an Allied reporter of known integrity being denied the use of the Allied radio.

What was worse, there was a strong probability that U.S. military men in Singapore had at least been consulted. Another U.S. radio reporter in Singapore broadcast: "The possible precedent set in Mr. Brown's case in an area where American troops may soon be actively engaged is regarded by his colleagues with real concern."

When censorship begins to operate in the interests of morale, usually it soon operates in the interests of no one but the censor.

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