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GM/BMJ
MINISTRY OF INFORMATION NO. 10, NORTH WESTERN.
REGIONAL HISTORY.

[1. Mr. Briggs 20 [illegible] effort.]

[2. Mr. Meera.]

The planning of Civil Defence Regions was based largely on what was expected to be the degree of vulnerability to enemy attach. The result was that the North Western Region at the outbreak of war was a very large one with a great diversity of interests and natural features within its boundaries. It ranged from the hardy mountain fastnesses of the High Peak, through the drowsy richness of the Cheshire plain, the smoke blackened drabness of industrial Lancashire to the mellow rolling country of Fylde and Ribble, to the beauty of the English Lakes, and the anxious activity of the West Cumberland industrial area.

In Crewe and Carlisle at its extremities, it had two vital railway centres and between them could be found every kind of industry known in this country.

Evacuation and the training of workers soon gave it a population roughly equal to that of Greece to which it is also equal in territorial area. In the early days it did its part in providing a lion's share of fighting men as later it did its part in providing a formidable proportion of the implements of war. As the war progressed the enemy demonstrated that the North West was far from invulnerable. There were heavy bombing raids, particularly on Merseyside. Just before the war ended the enemy launched a V1 attack.

From time to time throughout the war there were daring single bomber raids even in daylight, obviously aimed at key targets which were very thick on the ground. The U-boat campaign made Liverpool the Headquarters of Western Approaches which controlled the whole of the War in the Atlantic.

After Dunkirk thousands of Frenchmen and other nationals were landed in the Region. When America came into the war a high percentage of her troops came to Europe through the North West.

North West workshops did much towards the building of Mulberry Harbour, Bailey bridges, the Sten gun and other secret contrivances and the secrets were never allowed to leak.

All these factors made the job of the Regional Office of the Ministry of Information a very active and responsible one. Such an office would have been failing in its duty if it had not shown more meetings, film shows, exhibitions and other features to its credit than other Regions. In addition the North West Regional Office makes its claim to having originated many activities which afterwards have become nationwide. It was a voluntary speaker on the North West panel who gave the information on which it was possible to obtain the first group of loudspeaker vans loaned by a tobacco firm and used for emergency work in the early blitzes at Coventry and elsewhere. The North West is the only Regional Office to which the B.B.C. and all the National newspapers (except the Times which does not print outside London) felt it necessary to have private telephone lines which have been greatly used. It was the North West Region which got out the first Welcome Sheet for U.S. troops arriving in this country. Even before Pearl Harbour at Christmas 1941 when the first groups of “American technicians” came to a North West town for training, hospitality activities were started, though without funds, in a Christmas party and dance. The R.A.F. lent an orchestra, N.A.A.F.I. provided refreshments at l/-d. per head, a gymnasium was borrowed from a British Military Unit, while a Sergeants Mess lent a piano and the B.B.C. made recordings.

With the collaboration of the Lord Mayor of Manchester the first officially recognised Anglo Russian Friendship Committee was set up on lines afterwards accepted as a model; the first complete scheme for immobilising printing presses in case of invasion including those in national newspaper offices, was made here; this was the first Region to include official press representatives operating as they would in action, inside an Exercise; it was the first Region to have the assistance of the 193 -2-Radio Retailers organisations in making a complete survey of commercial loudspeaker equipment in a Region. Probably the first large scale exhibition in which the Ministry was interested was an A.R.P. Exhibition at Lewis's Store, Manchester on which we collaborated with the City of Manchester. Lewis's spent about £2000 on this Exhibition.

The chief Regional Information Officer in the early days was Sir Ernest Simon who left when the Regional Office was drastically cut down following certain questions in the House of Commons and in the Press. He was followed by Mr. J.R. Scott who was R.I.O. up to his resignation in December 1941.

Throughout its history the Region has shown faith in Committees and was probably the only Region to have complete coverage by an Information Committee in every Parliamentary Division. This coverage did not remain constant as there were adjustments found necessary owing to peculiar local conditions, but early in 1945 when Committees were given the opportunity of disbanding, those in the North West felt that they still had work to do and they were not in fact disbanding until after the end of the War in Europe. Even then some of them were reconstituted locally as Council of Social Service Committees or co-ordinating Committees for the organisation of big local events.

The Regional Advisory Committee had as its Chairman almost to the end, Lord Derby, Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire, who took the keenest possible interest in the work and who in spite of physical disability came to meetings and held the firm allegiance and whole-hearted affection of every member of the Committee. At the final meeting members were able to agree that they had found much very useful work to do.

The attitude of the Regional Office has been very much that of the Resettlement Advice bureaux now set up by the Ministry of Labour, that is to regard every enquiry which came to it as being something which must be dealt with, and not to send anyone away without as much help and guidance as could be given. In this way, apart from the regular work of Departments, many thousands of individual problems have been dealt with and people of all nationalities and colours have been helped to forget any preconceived notions they may have had about “red tape”. The outstanding failure was to find any place in this country which could supply the kind of marshmallows which Americans toast at fireside parties.

Apart from the fact that outside London there is no other Region with as many National daily papers published within its borders there is no other Region with equal local newspaper coverage. This has meant that the Press Department had unrivalled opportunities. What could be done in the way of publicity was shown in connection with the Army Exhibition in 1944. A bundle of cuttings which delighted the War Office was the sample of publicity which drew three quarters of a million people through the turnstiles - more than the total wartime population of Manchester.

To state these facts is not trumpet blowing, It must be reiterated that the Region had the population, area and industry to call for greater activity than was possible in other Regions.

For nearly five years the Manchester office of the Ministry was manned day and night, seven nights a week. Members of the staff stuck to their posts in the office and out of it through blitz and fire and blackout. They have planned facilities in connection with visits of the King and Queen, King Haakon, the Crown Prince of Norway, the King of Greece, certain Indian Princes, Mrs. Roosevelt, Mr. Wendell Wilkie, and other Very Important Personages.

They have crawled along the coal face in Lancashire pits, flown in Lancaster bombers, boarded ships of war and great troop carriers, walked miles through vast factories and attended huge midnight meetings and film shows for the workers. They have been quartered in workhouse premises, workers hostels, Civil Defence dormitories and they have gone into the soldiers hostels and clubs and the clubs and haunts of industrial workers, fighting men and merchant seamen of many nationalities.

Perhaps the best way of completing this condensed summary is to give a few statistics and a bibliography of files at these offices from which any section can be amplified.

From the beginning of 1940 to the end of June 1945 some 600 distinguished visitors have been conducted on tours in the Region.

In the same period 31,922 film shows have been given - 16 mm shows by mobile units in factories and elsewhere - and 35 mm shows in cinemas outside ordinary programme hours.

The Meetings Department has held some 1,200 meetings in the same period, apart from thousands of talks given largely in the open air by staff speakers in connection with recruiting, salvage, blood transfusion and other campaigns.

A Ministry of Aircraft Production document attached to this paper gives some background of the Region's war effort which we believe we helped to stimulate.

The files preserved at this office from which much detail could be extracted are:

Progress Reports

Anglo American Liaison reports

Reports to the Regional Commissioner (Sir Warren Fisher, Sir Harry Haig, Lord Geddes, Mr. Hartley Shawcross)

Minutes of Regional Welfare Committee.

Minutes of Regional Industrial Publicity Committee

French Sailors in the Region

Staff Matters (General Piles)

Minutes of Regional Advisory Committee

Press Officer's Activity sheets.

R.I.O.’s Diaries 1942 - 1945

R.I.O.’s Reports to Regional Advisory Committee.

And special mention should be made of the Night Log kept by the officer on duty during the nights when the North West was bombed.

[[illegible]]

Regional Information Officer.