Censorship--Maybe

A jubilant junior censor crashed into the SHAEF press room at Paris' Hotel Scribe and shouted: "All censorship is off!"

Sure enough, before he could pack his blue pencils and shears--or newsmen could toast his departure--Press Release No. 1621 came clanking off the Mimeographs. It came from on high (the combined chiefs of staff) and was as big a surprise to most censors as to correspondents. Said 1621: "In order to clarify the position of this headquarters . . . censorship in this theater is hereby discontinued except for major troop movements . . . and such other matters of high military importance as may require reference to the Supreme Commander."

On a second, sober look, newsmen (and censors) decided that the clarification needed clarifying. Next day SHAEF explained : continued censorship on "matters of high military importance" was not as forbidding as it sounded. Only major item now banned under this clause: interviews with Nazi bigwigs, while evidence is being gathered for their trials. Otherwise, almost anything goes. SHAEF-accredited correspondents will even be admitted to the war crime trials. Skeptical newsmen, hardened by SHAEF's creaky, on-again-off-again press machinery, decided to keep their fingers crossed for a while.

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