The Press: Practicality & Principle

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Secretary of State John Foster Dulles last week conceded "in principle" that Americans are entitled to "adequate information" about Red China—but offered a tentative formula for coverage that most news organizations considered inadequate and impractical. In conference with a group of newspaper, magazine and broadcasting representatives invited to discuss the situation, Dulles modified his previous proposal (TIME, May 6) for pooled coverage by a limited number of "responsible" correspondents and offered to lift the ban for ten to 15 newsmen for a six-month trial period. His aim: to restrict China coverage to the twelve* news-gathering organizations that had correspondents on the mainland before the Communists took over in 1949.

Dulles asked the news representatives to join him in selecting the organizations to be allowed correspondents in China, but the Washington Post and Times Herald's J. Russell Wiggins, representing the American Society of Newspaper Editors, objected that U.S. policy of no contact with Red China is a Dulles-Eisenhower policy, and therefore the President and Secretary of State must take full responsibility for the nature and scope of any exceptions to it. The newsmen objected to Dulles' proposed limitation on the size of the group because it ignored "technological" changes since the war, i.e., the growth of TV reporting. Also, argued the Holyoke (Mass.) Transcript-Telegram's William Dwight, president of the American Newspaper Publishers Association, "economic factors" provide a built-in limitation on the number of correspondents in China. Probable outcome: six-month visas for 20 to 35 newsmen.