The Press: Zaslavsky v. Baldwin

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Last week chubby, 54-year-old Byfield became a war correspondent overnight (at "around" $10,000 a year and expenses). His assignment: to write about Chicagoans in Britain. His approach to the job: "I think I might give Chicagoans something they want to know [about the war]. My stories will be primarily of Chicagoans and a comparison of present living conditions and habits in England and Scotland with those I knew when I used to visit there. ... I want to see and study the food and liquor situation" (he is Midwest distributor for "Old Rarity" Scotch).

Correspondent Byfield was hired by the Herald-American's Editor Walter Howey after the Daily News had told Byfield that it took on none but skilled newsmen for its prized foreign service. Editor Howey's hope: that Reporter Byfield will write as he talks.

Combat Legmen

The ordinary U.S. infantryman, foot-slogging G.I. Joe, has been grossly neglected by the U.S. press (TIME, April 10). Last week 14 infantry correspondents shoved off for a battlefront. They were the first members of a ground-force news corps which, the Army plans, will soon cover each active division with a similar team.

Unlike the Marines' correspondents, they will not file news. Instead, they will dig in with combat troops, get the story of the infantryman in action, supply it to civilian correspondents—in short, they will be the legmen and cameramen for the newsmen in their theater. All but one of last week's 14 are combat-trained; each is civilian experienced.

They are: Major Paul A. Conlin, ex-Washington Times-Herald reporter; Captain Richard D. Peters, ex-Cleveland Press; Captain James W. Hungate Jr., ex-Spokane Chronicle; Captain Earl M. Hoff, ex-Indianapolis Times; Lieut. Harry McCormick, ex-Dallas News; Lieut. Richard K. Tucker, ex-Indianapolis News; Lieut. Edwin H. James, ex-Los Angeles News Bureau; Lieut. Escar Thompson, ex-Associated Press at Nashville; Lieut. John W. Lueddeke, ex-Movietone News, formerly with the British Eighth Army in Africa; Sergeant John F. P. Tucker, ex-publisher of a Paterson, N.J. weekly; Corporal Edward Farnsworth, ex-Los Angeles freelance cameraman; Private Henry T. McLemore, ex-McNaught Syndicate columnist (his wife now writes it); Private Perry McMahon, ex-Pittsburgh Press; Private Carl Ritt, ex-Evansville, Ind. Press.

Argentine Armistice

The totalitarian Argentine Government last week granted armistice terms to foreign press associations. The terms : unconditional surrender to Government control.

Hereafter in the offices of U.P., A.P. and Reuters there will be a Government interventor to check incoming & outgoing dispatches.

The truce ended a 17-day shutdown of U.P. services (TIME, March 27), but only after Prensa Unida (Argentine subsidiary) had signed an "admission" that it had distributed "false news" about Argentina from Montevideo during its suspension. In Manhattan, U.P. officials said they knew nothing of circumstances under which the "admission" was signed.