ISU Library Shelley Collection: Box 8, Reel 2

this is London Calling station wh a Des Moines Iowa each week at this time visitors to Britain from the United States and Canada talk back home today our guest is Jack Skelly manager the news department rotation WH o Des Moines Iowa and the credited war correspondent with the United States mr. Shelley is at present in London on route for the forces battlegrounds and to talk today is on the subject of ni cooperation the United Nations in war and peace ten by NAR for North American guests night with get speaker Jack Shelley I must confess to you at the outset at the first reactions of one so newly arrived in the United Kingdom as I on being asked to appear on this North American guest night broadcast are mingled emotions of gratification and dismay mixed with my pleasure at being allowed to address the large North American audience of the British Broadcasting Corporation is a sincere feeling that I have scarcely been in Britain long enough to make the sound evaluation of the things I have clean and heard as a professional newsman I've always had a healthy suspicion of the alleged expert on matters form who arrives in the strange country one week leaves it the next and then proceeds with the greatest of assurance to tell us what the people of that country think about everything from international relations the jitterbug dancing for myself I hope you will excuse me if I do not try to sell you such a bill of goods arriving in wartime written from the comfort and security of the American Middle West frankly presents the newcomer with the same kind of wildly uncoordinated impressions as the blind man in the famous old story each of whom felt different parts of an elephant's anatomy and proceeded to describe the animal and the basis of what he touched the film is part of course one thing is obvious that Britain has been ears and will be until the end of the European struggle a target of the enemy and a tremendously important base at which the Nazi will always try to strike with any means at his command the time the new visitor first groups his way through a London blackout through the succession of days when he observes more and more the shattered buildings and the open areas which tells the story of German bombs the feeling grows ever more compelling that here our people will felt more than mere words can tell of the suffering that war brings and his occasional flying bombs keep on falling in southern England and the Nazi begins to experiment with his erratic new bombs the admiration of an American correspondent for the dogged courage of the British people likewise increases by leaps and bounds to an American also another factor appears the civilian population of Britain need never fear any loss of the respect and affection of their men and women in the Armed Forces for the combat units know full well that their people back home are born with them the theory of the German attack have suffered yes and died were the same devotion to duty displayed by those in uniform and the fact that we civilians in America have not had this same experience of sharing the misfortunes of war with our fighting men is not all to the good in spite of its obvious advantages every thinking American knows that in the security of our home front lies the very real danger our goal of misunderstanding between civilian and soldier and any correspondent who talks with American combat troops in this European theater learns very quickly of their frequent fears that the people back home to put it in their own word just don't know there's a war on much of that feeling I'm afraid grows out of 40 reporting a great deal more of it comes about through a situation which is going to occur when any great nation is more or less protected by two enormous oceans but the feeling here is fair nonetheless and it is not a pleasant one to report a measure of sacrifices and their suffering Britain can take at least some satisfaction in the knowledge that this is one post-war problem she will not have to face even a short stay in wartime England also makes clear to any observer the colossal value of this island base from a purely military standpoint for operations against the for who once held on all of Europe in his fist the site of uniforms from all over the globe on the streets of London the occasional glimpses of the staggering concentrations of military supplies in material that are funneled through Britain to Europe the American and British planes that were overhead day after day all these nearly proved again for d-day demonstrated beyond all doubt that Britain ranching platform whose very existence was necessary if Hitler was to be destroyed and what one thinks of how this platform was made possible the great military campaign that has already brought Allied armies across the German border in at least one sector even the various tyro at the business of war shudders to think what might have been the story has written had not held in the dark days of 1940 how staggering would have been the loss of this outpost of freedoms army how dark might have been the future of all the Democratic world I've already had occasion to remark in an earlier broadcast through BBC to my own radio station w-h-o of the contribution of the British dominions to the Allied war effort I saw a remarkable example of this in a recent visit to a Royal Air Force fighter base there I saw flyers whose homelands smelled like a rolecall of the British Commonwealth of Nations Australians New Zealanders and of course many from that Dominion for which we Americans have such a neighborly affection Canada all of them wore the blue all of them wore the blue all of them wore the blue of the aria through the Aria through the Aria through the Aria through the Aria and flying beside them from the same base and sharing the same mutual respect for their quality mutual respect for their qualities as fighting many were polish aviators they had come most of them from thousands of miles away away to fight the same battle side by side with their English comrades against the for they knew to be equally the enemy of each of them and on many occasions they had taken their fighter pee occasions they had taken their fighter planes into the skies Europe the Flyers escorts for the mighty bombers the fortresses and liberators of the United States Army Air Forces I couldn't help feeling as I heard the stor feeling as I heard the story of this allied cooperation in the city of this allied cooperation in the skies that here if we only have a sense to see it and this time I think we have was the pattern for the sort of teamwork that free men must preserve if we are to keep the peace that is being earned it's so great a price on the battlefields of this war it is a pattern that we Americans have also had before I have also had before the Americans have also had before us in the Federation of our 48 states and the welding together of diverse elements pro-drive diverse elements from all over the world into one mighty nation one mighty nation practical basis of this allied team is simply that is to the advantage of all of us regardless of our minor differences to keep it a going concern truthfully I think that is the only sensible basis on which to form the whole framework it is all very well to say the British and American people's for example share the same language and the same general outlook on life but I think that any Brittany who has rubbed elbows with the thousands of Yanks through a crowd of this country in recent years will tell you the thing that has struck you most is how different we remember and neither of us would have it any other way by the same token there have been plenty of differences among Americans themselves as history is recorded we even fought a civil war over some of them but all of us have long since decided that we are far better off individually and collectively under our Federation of states and with a system of rules and laws which we all agree to respect moreover there is this compelling factor that the whole business the state of world society has now arrived at a point the development of modern weapons of war has now become so great that is old Ben Franklin remark in the early days of American independence we must all hang together or we will all hang separately anyone who has the slightest imagination in this day when flying bombs are already being used by an aggressor nation can see that the time has come when a solution is no longer merely unwise for any nation but simply impossible if for example this alive team should be disbanded after the military victory is won and the scientists of some new word the world dictator are given ten or twenty or twenty-five years in which to perfect the rocket as a means of surprise attack there will certainly be no country in the world where democracy can be safe from sudden death to say that the possibilities of these new weapons are frightening is to put a smile layer and how likely it is that after two world wars in which the power of America on the side of the Democratic cause has been so impressively demonstrated that we in the United States may be the first targets of such an attack personally I am more and more convinced as I go my around in Britain that this great team we call the United Nations will be preserved not for just a few years after the war but for many many years to come I know the British people with all they have seen of modern war are determined that virtually no sacrifice is too great to guarantee that a win out of peace can be maintained by free men and I have every reason to believe that Americans have the same conviction and that emphatically includes what many Europeans used to call our isolationist Middle West the region I am most familiar with I don't think I am being unduly optimistic in any event I am inclined to agree with one young American Air Force pilot with whom I talked at dinner the other night optimistic he said I don't dare to be anything but optimistic if I thought that when this thing is over I was going to go home and raise a family only to have another world war come along in 20 years or so he said I don't think I could face living any longer and that for this observer just about sums it up we of the Democratic powers have got the team we have shown what it can do in the fighting of a war if we don't go ahead they show what it can do to preserve a world at peace then indeed the twilight of democracy will of tongue D Tokyo just heard my deck Shelley manager of the new Department of Station WH er Des Moines Iowa and accredited war correspondent to the United States forces this is the British Broadcasting Corporation WH or the voice for victory Des Moines this is Jeff Shelley are you Rachel is war correspondent speaking to you from Paris as I make these frequent broadcast to you from overseas and the sort of people with whom he works you see I hope in a way to take you along with me on this trip because without pushing the personal element on Dooley I think perhaps you find it interesting and helpful to know some of the backgrounds that underlies the job I'm trying to do and here in Perth there's a focal point which forms a background for practically every news report you read or see from a correspondent of cottages to shave which is short for supreme headquarters Allied expeditionary forces that put the point is the Spree hotel follow the FBR ibe where almost every correspondent who comes to Paris is Howard the hotel whose name has long been connected with journalism has been taken over by the army although still and some hundreds of reporters are here they come from most of the alive ition and they represent radio newspapers another news media well they got the news issued by supreme headquarters here mostly in the big work room with many tables they write their copy such as I did this webcast here they submit their stories the censors and if their newspaper correspondent here the cable & wireless company is sent the approved copy two papers all over the world and also here in the screen hotel we radio correspondence take our coffee to small studios on one of the floors and broadcast to our listeners back home here also are the public relations officers without corresponds to get the stories they want and they often take the most special trips the new room where we get our letters in people room for topic courage of the state's five military plane add in the basement three times a day the corresponding to gather in a large room whose walls are covered by map officers using large parties after the schoolroom fashion in reporters what's called their briefing the latest reports on what's going on along the Great Western Front then the corresponds for the great wire services and for radio networks and many individual news outlets rush out to write their summaries - with under the sensors and send them off to the world is from these briefings that the correspondence for United Press an international news service get the news it arrives a few minutes later in our newsroom at WH old and from which our into this taps are allowed to compile there are other correspondents and the front areas of course but these reporters in the street hotel are the men who get the broad overall picture and after attending a great many of these briefings and seeing the great mass of detail that's given them my admiration for the skill and special knowledge of the correspondence for the great American news services has risen higher than ever it's no easy job to sort out the important from the unimportant as he's breathing and to write a summary that's brief found is easily understood this is the newsletter for the whole Western Front and the men who hold down the job there know their business through the corridors of the screamo tower these days past some of the most famous names in the journalism world radio and press and perhaps few days for example HV Kaltenborn Leyland stove William L Shiro Virgil Finkley do United Press European manager John McBain of NBC Janet's family New Yorker magazine Helen Kirkpatrick of the Chicago Daily News and many others have been among the ever-changing theme my roommate is jrl Anderson military courts problem for the famous English newspaper the Manchester Guardian another top newspaper and radio reporters of Britain are on the job here at the screen there are also photographers and artists coming in and out from their assignments to cover the victorious side of the war the other night Lloyd Davis one of the best-known illustrators Newmar they showed me the drawings they made a myth sketch board while covering the fighting at myth also here is his wife one of America's leading women had it who also was picturing the war that's why staying in the screen these days is one of Iowa's leading newspaper men Ralph - managing editor of the Davenport daily time he's in Paris for a brief stay after first coming to England as the guest of the British Ministry of Information he also I'm not a white officer from Iowa second lieutenant Virginia Kincaid of Cedar Rapids she is secretary - Colonel - please chief of headquarters operations of the shaved public relations division it was the kind of Kinkaid desirable girl trained at Fort Des Moines with the dictation of the famous communique number one which announced for our landings in France had begun last June Peter the Meredith we read that communicates to a waiting world on that historic morning a brief matter-of-fact announcement that in my memory will always be one of the great moments in radios reporting of the news and that's the brief picture of the Spree bold talent every picture of the Spree voltaren paris the federal the news coverage of this European World Cup let's hope it won't be long before these hard-working Corps volunteer can bash to the wires and the microphone with the Royal here the news of the engine starting over here when that happy day comes I don't think you need to doubt but they all get it to you straight and get a to your straight and get it to you five give you fast this is Jeff Shelley waho is one for a comment he chose one correspondent in from Paris I'm returning you to Des Moines in once again from a studio of the British indignant I was commanding the attention of Americans are killed in wartime London would like to tell you tonight something about how the British people are saving for victory and I think that in the energy and the sacrifice being displayed by these people here who suffered so much from a sheer physical sense those of us in the States can derive still another example of how determined we should be that our dollars shall be enlisted in the fight for freedom on every hand in between once a is displayed a very simple underground system pasted domini number of places where the RMA fall the legend of that poster number is just half a dozen words we've got to keep on saving sentiment that is being acted upon is effort in national savings the counterpart of our war bond activities back home is another of the proud records which fill every British fighting man with a calm assurance that his civilian comrades are backing him up to the very limit of their powers I spent a good many hours the other day checking into the British war savings program employs almost everyone the techniques we are using an America plus perhaps a few others that we haven't employed if you were working for example the British war plan or a shop or any other business you almost certainly would be earmarking part of your wages under a payroll deduction plan just as we do in the States but in addition to the payroll deductions and being asked to invest additional amounts in special drives you would find that every week or so a volunteer collector in your place of employment would come round and ask if you didn't have an extra steering-oar service week that you had to invest that also in war savings I have the word of leaders in the series campaign of London that is this energetic collection activity based on personal contacts by volunteer workers that's been one of the greatest strengths of the British effort each large industries has its own war savings collection plan and here in London every mirror the city has at least one savings center for the wrecking stores and smaller business places is directed an enormous amount of the worth in this whole campaign is done by British women both the savings centres I saw for example were staffed entirely by women who had volunteered their time to the cause when you invest your savings in the war effort here in Britain you can buy a war savings certificates or stamps very much the same sort of thing as all war bonds and stamps the certificates for example but or in ten years but they are issued in smaller denominations than ours the small certificate is worth fifteen shillings about three dollars American at the end of ten years it'll be worth a pound and sixpence a trifle over four dollars and the interest is tax free one can also buy a defense bonds question five pounds or about twenty dollars and paying 3% per year but this interest is subject to income tax one of the more noticeable differences in the British method however is the post office savings and the counters are also treated as party related actions if the worker design without in the post office Savings Bank but the video should put perhaps even more emphasis on use when we have that home free of charge very attractive in we're saving stamps missin birthday card and one can also buy over thirty seven pounds in either certificate as a result of all the various of the work of the volunteer assistance album saving British Authority war savings are still showing an evident increase after five long and bitter years as an example for the week ended November fifth United Kingdom with an approximate population of only 14 million saved some 15 million pounds or about 52 million dollars it seems to me that's a remarkable figure for a country where hundreds of businessmen staggering financial loss through the action of the enemy we care under broad it's here under broad care under broad here on the board how much easier than it should be for Americans to do than it should be for Americans to do the job of war saving the disaster the job of war saving the disaster the job of war saving the disaster the job of wars they didn't used to our Father backing them I tied up in soldiers in the European theater hey don't forget we're not doing all they can can answer them and there's six ways you can do it or I'm leaving very soon I hope to be able to speak to you from there as well in the meantime goodbye from estudia a British Broadcasting Corporation in London this is the British Broadcasting Corporation standby now and now in few moments we'll hear from WH ozone Jack chalets speaking from BB sprays from them readings of get me my plan back and all my friends about our this is Jeff Shelley speaking to you once more from a London studio of the British Broadcasting Corporation one of the first things any American correspondent who arrives in London learns about the food situation is that while the British public is being adequately fed it's by no means an easy thing to find any British eating house anything like the kind of meal that you folks back in the states except as a matter of course even the more expensive restaurants courses are sharply limited the better grades of meat are rarely seen and the vegetables and fruits that we Americans like so well are almost out of the question but US correspondent in London soon learns another thing now there is a one easily accessible spot where you can not only get the kind of news Americans like but where the pricey is asked to pay is almost unbelievably lower that spot as the famous consolidated officers mess operated by the United States Army in part of the Grosvenor House Hotel that you're cheating place is generally agreed to be one of the greatest food operations of this entire war by any standard you carry will fire and without any question it's the biggest officers mess in the world perhaps the best tribute has ever been paid at this London officers mess is that what every American over here it's known by its nickname they call it will run after the enormous aircraft factory near Detroit and the nickname applies beautifully for this food factory if it might be called that functions were the same amazing size efficiency an effortless speed as the original will run bomber plan perhaps a few figures will give you an idea of how big this officers mess really is on the average six thousand American officers correspondents and other persons directly linked with the army are fed here every day last Sunday at one meal almost three thousand pounds of chicken were served which means that about 750 chickens had to be provided for that single dinner and about 200 gallons of coffee are consumed at every meal to wash down the fine staples which make up the menu one place in England for an American can be sure of getting a cup of coffee he'll really like and making good coffee according to our ideas is one thing the British still haven't mastered little run to use this nickname again mix its coffee and huge 25 gallon pots from its own special formula and it's really bad and as many additional cups as you want when you come into this raid officers mess and check your coat you walk out on a balcony and look down on scores of tables packed with hundreds of Americans eating and what certainly must be one of the biggest dining rooms ever seen you go down the stairs on either side and enter one of two curving lines passing along the food counters you pick up a tray and from that moment you're on the assembly line that gave will over on its nickname there's not a lost motion as you pass down the counter one woman employee places the meat course in one of the compartments of the metal tray the next potato is another is vegetables butter and so on all the way through dessert at the end of the line you pay the cashier with British money and it's then you'll have the pleasant surprise of learning this fine meal will also be one of the cheapest you've eaten since reaching London breakfast cost you a shilling and sixpence that's about 30 cents in American money and dinner and supper cost two shillings each or about 40 cents American you can go back as often as you like there are no helpings of everything but meat as a sample here was last Sunday the menu at the officers mess for breakfast each man had a real honest-to-goodness orange and in order to appreciate how welcome that is you must understand that the people here in Britain an orange is practically a museum piece also there was huddled meal a choice of grass oil but plenty of canned milk to put on it hot cakes toast butter peach jam and coffee for dinner there was fried chicken giblet gravy mashed potatoes peas cabbage and pineapple salad and the salad of that kind is another rare treat over here devil's food cake red or rolls with butter cherry jam and coffee or tea and for supper there was pea soup corn beef green potatoes Brussels sprouts and solid vanilla pudding peanut butter and the usual lineup of bread and a choice of hot drinks moreover once or twice every week there are real fried eggs for breakfast something else that's a rare creaking Breton the eggs are cold storage ship from the states and that brings up another remarkable angle of this operation virtually all the food is served this mess is transported all the way for Martha and in order not to cut into the London civilian food supplies only a few one rationed items such as lettuce and occasional petals about here in the country however reverse lend-lease provides quantities of fresh vegetables and salads I might add in that connection that this has not been a good crop year for the British farmer in his gallant battle to keep up food production it's been extremely wet especially in the northern sections during harvest time and this is added the complications caused by labor shortages and all the other difficulties of British wartime farming the meat and poultry is at the London officers mess are shipped in frozen form from the states most of the vegetables are dehydrated and the Gulf is either canned or powdered but when they reach the table they're as tasty as if these products were fresh from the farm and one thing you Midwestern farmers can be sure of is that the foodstuffs and the meats you have done such a fine job of raising are really coming through this big so-called Willow Run eating place and all the officers messes in London are directed by captain Frances Madden of Boston Massachusetts and the mess officer for Willow Run itself is first lieutenant Lloyd Underhill of Mansfield Ohio some 475 civilians are employed at this biggest of all officers misses most of em fish the US Army personnel includes four officers in seven surgeons and three of the latter are wax the menus are made up from a master menu drawn up by quartermaster headquarters of the army and you'll be pleased to know this is the same basic menu for our soldiers in the field here at this London officers mass the basic menu was studied and in some cases modified on the basis of supplies we're trained dietician who is a regular member of the staff this dietician is a woman officer first lieutenant Ethel boots of Archie Nebraska the chef's themselves are civilians headed by an Englishman and including Coles and Frenchman among others they work in three shifts of eight hours each so that anytime and 24 hours a day there's always something cooking at the consolidated officers mess it is much wonder it's one of the best places in or written for a man who wants a good meal that's just one story and have a food that farmers grow is reaching allied soldiers far from home it's a story that Americans and British alike have a right to be proud of for it could never have occurred unless you food producers back home and these hard-working farmers battling all kinds of handicaps here in Britain we're doing the biggest job and farm history thanks to your combined efforts are fighting matter eating better than ever before in history and all again that's all from London today this is Jack Charlie speaking from a studio of the British Broadcasting Corporation and returning you to heard planned egg and the Corn Belt hour at WH ol and Des Moines