CHAPTER 1
BACKGROUND AND BEGINNINGS

The thirteenth Region of the Ministry of Information was in Northern Ireland, that part of the United Kingdom to which the British Commonwealth and the United Nations came to owe so much during the trying days of the Battle of the Atlantic and the drawn out struggle to maintain the life lines of Britain through her darkest days. It is not the purpose of this review to enlarge upon the building of Ulster as a great British bridgehead in total war, but the tribute by Britain's great wartime Prime Minister, Mr. Winston Churchill speaks for itself. He said:

“But for the loyalty of Northern Ireland and its devotion to what has now become the cause of thirty governments or nations we should have been confronted with slavery and death, and the light which now shines so strongly throughout the world would have been quenched.”

In spite of the lessons of war, which proved the value of the loyalty of Northern Ireland to the common cause, a good deal of ignorance still persists regarding the constitution of Ulster, as it is commonly known. This part of Ireland retained its link with the United Kingdom under the Government of Ireland Act of 1920, which brought into being the Irish Free State, or Eire, as it is now known. Of the total counties of Ireland Eire controls twenty-six and the term “Northern Ireland” means the six counties of Antrim, Down, Armagh, Londonderry, Fermanagh and Tyrone. The term “Ulster” is commonly used to describe these six counties, although geographically the province of Ulster includes nine counties, three of which are administered by the Irish parliament in Dublin. Northern Ireland has its own parliament and at the same time sends representatives to the Imperial Parliament at Westminster.

The political situation in Northern Ireland has no parallel in Britain and this affected the Ministry's regional work in a manner quite unlike any other Region. The nature of the political scene here meant that there never was a political truce between the Parties for the simple reason that the great majority of the Ulster people are Unionists and therefore firm believers in the maintenance of the strong links that bind Ulster to the United Kingdom, and their political opponents in the main differ from the Unionists on the constitutional issue. In this way in Northern Ireland there are no pure politics in the same sense that there are in England, as the constitutional issue is the over-riding one with the great majority of the people.

The “life” of Northern Ireland's predominantly Unionist Government was extended in common with the Imperial Government during the European war. At the beginning of hostilities the Government placed its whole resources at the disposal of the Mother of Parliaments and Ulster's contribution on the industrial front and as a base for naval vessels and aircraft fully justified the hopes placed in her by the leaders of the Government. Ulster's contribution in manpower to the Services was large, although the appeal of the Ulster Government for the application of conscription was not acceded to by the Imperial Government, and all Ulstermen point with pride to the great number of distinguished generals Staff, Field Marshal Sir Alan Brooke, and Field Marshals Sir Bernard Montgomery and Sir Harold Alexander.

The area of this Region is 5,237 square miles, with a population of a little over 1¼ millions. Belfast with its vast industries and great shipyards is the largest city in Northern Ireland, with a population of almost half-a-million people, and Londonderry, the home of a vital naval base in western Approaches, is the second largest city. The area as a whole is predominantly agricultural and, in fact, proved a great larder for Britain during the war, supplying millions of eggs and thousands of gallons of liquid milk to swell 220 the common pool of Britain's food resources, in addition to a continual flow of livestock.

With this brief explanation of the geographical and political back- ground it will be readily seen that there is no parallel to the Northern Ireland Region in any other part of the United Kingdom, with the possible exception of the Scottish Region where there is a Scottish Office and where the area is predominantly agricultural. These facts dictated the Ministry's policy in planning the work of their Regional Office, which was established in April, 1940.

The Regional headquarters in this Region were in Belfast at Stormont Castle in the Parliament Buildings estate, a few miles from the heart of the city. The close links that always existed between the Ministry of Information and the Northern Ireland Government cannot be over-emphasised. The Ministry's small staff - it has never been more than eight in the Northern Ireland Region - was housed throughout the war in Stormont Castle, in the same building as the Cabinet Secretariat of the Northern Ireland Government, and during the period of heavy enemy air activity over Ulster in the same building as the Northern Ireland Ministry of Public Security, with whom the Ministry of Information worked most harmoniously during the difficult period following heavy raids. In the Stormont Estate are the Parliament Buildings and the headquarters of all the Northern Ireland Government Departments, with whom the Ministry of Information has always enjoyed the closest relationships.

With a Government in operation there never was a need for the appointment of a Regional Commissioner, as was done in the rest of the United Kingdom when the threat of invasion was imminent and plans made for the decentralisation of control. The Northern Ireland Government itself took the place of the Regional Commissioner and it will thus be seen that the Regional Office of the Ministry of Information, being on the doorstep of all the Northern Ireland Government Departments, was able to maintain a personal and intimate contact with the senior officers of all the Departments responsible for the administration of the Ulster Services during the war.

The link with the Northern Ireland Government went even further than this because the Ministry's staff throughout the war has in the main been composed of officers of the Northern Ireland Government who were seconded to the Ministry of Information. Thus the Ministry had a Regional Information Officer who was also a member of the Northern Ireland Civil Service and the first Film Officer also shared this work with his duties for the Northern Ireland Government. It was not in fact until late in the war that the Ministry had a full-time Film Officer and at the end of the war in Europe the staff of the Ministry comprised an R.I.O., two Assistant Officers, a Film Officer, two Clerks and two typists. The Ministry in this Region worked throughout the war without appointing a separate Meetings Officer, Intelligence Officer or officer responsible primarily for work in connection with the American troops who were stationed here in large numbers. Both the R.I.O. and the Press Officer (the latter was appointed in July, 1940) came to the Civil Service from Journalism and quite naturally attached the utmost importance to the Press side of the Ministry's activities. It was no small achievement to work right through the war without receiving one serious complaint from any of the large number of newspapermen in Northern Ireland representing the four Belfast newspapers three of them morning papers, and the many provincial newspapers which included some tri-weekly and some bi-weekly papers as well as weeklies. It must be remembered too that the Policies of some of the newspapers concerned were not allied to the Unionist cause, but the Ministry treated all newspapers the same, with the result that relations remained on the highest level. In addition the British National newspapers have staff correspondents in Ulster and the Eire newspapers, printed in a State that remained neutral throughout the war, also had staff correspondents in Belfast. Relations with the Press, were, therefore, of extreme importance and all the Press work, including a weekly War Survey, issued to provincial newspapers, were dealt with by the R.I.O. and his Deputy.

The first days were rather hectic because the Ministry, with no precedent but a clear mandate and public thirsting for news, was feeling its way in an 221 effort to lay a regional foundation on which a good service to the Press and public could be built. The story of the early struggles of the Regional staff in its new work in various spheres is told in subsequent chapters of this review.