CHAPTER 4 .
WAR IN PICTURES

Working with no precedent, our ventures into the propaganda field took many and varied forms. Only experience showed which of these forms made the greatest impression on an unpredictable public, but it can be readily realised that the confidence that the Ministry in this Region had in its various efforts varied a good deal. It is true to say that in none of our propaganda excursions were we more chary of the results than in the touring exhibitions. This was probably due to the belief that the war in pictures would not appeal to the same extent as the war made to live in the moving film or in the spoken word. The exhibitions themselves, beginning as purely small displays of series of photographs, did not at first deeply impress the public, probably because the Ministry was not at liberty to commit itself to expenditure on newspaper Press advertising, upon which an organisation generally relies to “get its goods over” to the public. But the growing pains of the Ministry's exhibitions were soon left behind, and no form of propaganda succeeded better than the large scale exhibitions like the Type A shows and the giant displays put on for the Royal Air Force and the British Army. This was a natural development in the technique of portraying the war vividly to the people, and Exhibitions Headquarters in London kept pace with the increasingly selective taste of the public. Thus we saw, shortly after exhibitions were first introduced, large scale displays, not confined entirely to photographs of the war in its various aspects but including a large number of working models. This was the best feature of the Ministry's exhibitions because it became abundantly clear that everybody is at heart a child and that an exhibition with working models represented an interesting toy in the hands of men and women who will never grow old. The exhibition which depended entirely on photographs attracted a fairly good audience of connoisseurs, but the exhibition which included scale models of guns, aeroplanes and army equipment attracted a vast public from all sections of the community. When to these exhibitions were added the appeal of films showing subjects allied to the topic dealt with by the exhibitions, we had a concentrated drawing power probably unequalled by any other form of display.

There was no officer appointed in Northern Ireland to deal with exhibitions until almost the end of 1941, and the work prior to the addition to the staff was carried out by the Ministry's two senior officers in addition to their other duties. Memories of those early days centre round lightening tours in a motor-car with several picture set exhibitions stored in the back of the car and packets of drawing pins on the seats. Often it was necessary to visit four or five scattered sites in one day, and fix up the exhibitions in a hurry. By local posters and news paragraphs in the Press we had to depend on drawing the initial crowds to the exhibitions, and we entertained the hope that an attractive exhibition would receive its publicity through word of mouth and would, therefore, attract a good attendance on subsequent days.

It can readily be seen how very much the Ministry had to depend on the co-operation of local authorities, chiefly the Town Clerks, and of interested persons in the smaller towns, who were always willing to help the Ministry to stage its exhibitions. There was no field of the Ministry's work in which greater help was received from the Borough Councils and the Urban and Rural Councils than in exhibitions. Throughout the war it never was the practice of any local authority in Northern Ireland to charge the Ministry of Information for the use of a hall, however much it was needed, and whatever handicap its free loan to the Ministry imposed upon the Council through the loss of income from lettings of their hall. This was particularly so in Belfast, where whole-hearted co-operation was constantly received throughout the war from the Museums and Arts Committee of the Belfast Corporation, and this placed at the Ministry's 232 disposal the fine galleries of the Belfast Museum and Art Gallery. The site was not central, but its amenities far outweighed its disadvantages from the travelling public's point of view. We had another more or less permanent site in Belfast in the Belfast Central Library in Royal Avenue, a building that bore the deep scars of near misses during the raids and a building where the top floor, in which we held our exhibitions, was permanently blacked out and lighted because the roof had been damaged in the raids. In this building there was no lift working to ease the journey for older people who wanted to see our exhibitions. Other sites which were used for exhibitions included the fine store of Messrs. Robinson & Cleaver, which is in a central position in the main thoroughfare. For some of our really big shows the Belfast Corporation allowed us to use the Banqueting Hall, and the City Hall with its marble halls and wide attractive staircase was the setting for the display of the Stalingrad Sword in Belfast which in itself was the greatest display achievement of the Ministry during the war. As for other cities and towns, we had great assistance from the Londonderry Corporation who always lent, free of charge, the fine Guildhall at Londonderry, and other towns, notably Ballymena, Portadown, Lurgan and Enniskillen, placed every facility at the Ministry's disposal in the organisation of our shows.

Looking through files to refresh ones memory about exhibitions gives a comprehensive picture of the amount of detailed work involved in planning the various shows. First there was advance newspaper publicity, the over-printing of posters and the arrangement of official opening ceremonies. This latter task involved a great deal of work in co-operation with the local Councils who spared no pains to supply the Ministry with lists of local residents. The Councils and their staffs also materially assisted the Ministry in maintaining an oversight over exhibitions while they were running in their localities and, as this work was in every case entirely voluntary, the part of the local authorities in the success of the exhibitions cannot be overestimated.

In this Region the film was used extensively to add to the appeal of exhibitions and, as with public meetings, the link proved extremely happy. Some exhibitions lent themselves more readily to the use of films than others. The exhibitions for the Royal Air Force and the Army and our purely Ministry exhibitions dealing with Civil Defence and the menace of poison gas were types of exhibitions which provided a ready-made background for the showing of films on allied subjects.

We had a regular flow of exhibitions from June, 1941, until the beginning of 1944, and on many occasions several exhibitions were running simultaneously in the Region. The large scale displays which attracted the greatest audience were those put on jointly by the Ministry and one of the Services. We had three big exhibitions in co-operation with the Air Ministry in June, 1941, July 1942 and March, 1943. The British Army exhibition was toured in Northern Ireland in August, 1943, and this exhibition equalled, and probably surpassed, the R.A.F. for the wealth of its physical exhibits appeal. This was due to the great co-operation of the Northern Ireland District of the British Army who transformed the exhibition from a moderately sized, attractive show, including models, into a really large scale exhibition including many demonstrations and models that were bound to appeal to the public.

As has already been stated, the best display during the whole of the war was that arranged for the Stalingrad Sword in Belfast and on attendance figures this one-day showing of nine hours beat all the others by attracting 20,000 people.

It will not be possible, owing to the limitation of space, to record every exhibition, large and small, staged in this Region, but a reference to the highlights of exhibitions work in Northern 233 Ireland will give an impression of the response from the public to our displays.

To deal first with the Stalingrad Sword: this display in Belfast surprised the authorities by the extent of its drawing power. It was staged in the City Hall in October, 1943, and the Region had secured a rearrangement of the United Kingdom tour to bring the Sword to Belfast where it could only be shown for one day. Great precautions were taken for the safety of the sword, which was accompanied by Corporal L.G. Durbin and two Scotland Yard Detectives. Intricate arrangements were made by the police for escorting Cpl. Durbin and his charge from the Glasgow boat to the City Hall in the morning and from the City Hall to the Heysham boat in the evening.

Cpl. Durbin described the display site and scheme in Belfast as the best of his tour. The sword was displayed on the first floor of the City Hall in an alcove at the top of a divided marble staircase. The sword and scabbard were shown perpendicularly in a large glass case. This case was backed by off-white linen and it stood on the base of a monument about four feet from the ground. It was bordered on each side by high marble pillars surrounded by small white pillars with white roping. The base of the monument was covered with red velvet and the display case was floodlit. The scheme was executed by Messrs. Robinson & Cleaver for the Ministry. There was a “permanent” queue in the City Hall grounds all day and at 6.30, when the display should have closed, the crowds were so large that it was agreed to keep the sword on view until 8 o'clock and rush it to the Heysham boat later. Among the visitors to see the sword that day were the then Governor, the Duke of Abercorn; the Prime Minister, Sir Basil Brooke; the Lord Mayor, Sir Crawford McCullagh, Bart. , and the High Sheriff of Belfast, Sir Thomas Dixon. An amazing amount of newspaper publicity was received for this display.

The first of the three Joint Ministry and Air Ministry exhibitions opened in Belfast on June 18, 1941, and in 22 days attracted an attendance of 20,735. The record attendance on any one day was 2,004 on June 28th. The Duchess of Abercorn declared the exhibition open, and those present included the then Prime Minister, Mr. J.M. Andrews, Air Vice Marshal Carr, and the Lord Mayor, who presided. The Duchess of Abercorn met nine Fighter Pilots following the opening ceremony. The exhibition continued to establish records and at some places in Ulster it attracted an attendance greater than the total population of the town, due to the persistent return of interested people to the display. There was a daily average attendance of over 1,000 at Portadown, which has a total population of about 12,000. The display was shown at 12 sites, returning to Belfast on November 7th.

The second Royal Air Force exhibition, the “R.A.F. in Action” opened in Belfast at the Museum and Art Gallery on July 13th, 1942, and was opened on this occasion by Mr. Andrews. This exhibition toured until February, 1943. It had a wide showing throughout the Region and there was a novel ceremony at Enniskillen where it was shown in December, 1942. The official opening at Enniskillen was performed by Sir Basil Brooke, who was then Minister of Commerce and Production, and the official opening was preceded by a parade of the Portora Royal School flight of the A.T.C. and the Enniskillen Technical School flight of the A.T.C., and the U.S. Army Band headed the parade. The platform party included Dr. and Mrs. MacKenzie of Enniskillen, whose son, Flight-Lieut. Ken MacKenzie, D.F.C., is a local hero. MacKenzie was then a prisoner-of-war and he had brought down a German plane during the Battle of Britain by ramming the enemy plane with his Hurricane. The incident, which was well known, was the subject of a work in oils which was presented to Dr. and Mrs. MacKenzie by the Ministry and the Air Ministry at the opening ceremony.

The third Royal Air Force exhibition was ‘‘The R.A. F. on the Target”, which was toured in Northern Ireland to coincide with the Wings for Victory Savings Campaign. At Belfast the display was opened by Air Vice Marshal Tyrell, a Belfast officer. Again there were great crowds at the Belfast showing which was held in the City Hall. The aggregate attendance in ten days showing was 53,300. This particular exhibition was shown in five centres outside of Belfast.

The British Army Exhibition, the first of its kind, came to Northern Ireland in August, 1943. The exhibition, which had been produced by the Ministry for the War Office, in itself gave a comprehensive picture of life and training in the Army, and the type of weapon used by the modern Army in battle. In its original form it was a fine display, but the British Army in Northern Ireland co-operated to such good purpose that they considerably enlarged the exhibition to make it into a giant show, larger than any other exhibition staged in the North of Ireland. The Army in Ulster added to the exhibition a working model of a 25-pounder gun and introduced a large sandpit in which they buried mines to show the public how mine detectors work. This provided a happy link with the Film, “Desert Victory” which the Ministry showed twice a day during the run of the exhibition in all parts of Northern Ireland. There was also a complete N. A. A. F. I. store, a blood transfusion unit and a perfect system of a field telephone service at work inside the exhibition. Everything the Army had, except a tank, seemed to be included in this wonderful display. The Army and A.T.S. staffed the exhibition; Army Kinema unit operators showed the films, and the task of the Ministry in handling this exhibition was lighter than any other large scale show. The great interest of the General Officer Commanding, then General Sir Alan Cunningham, played a great part in ensuring the absolute success of this display from the outset. The attendance in Belfast numbered 31,906 in 19 days.

Our purely Ministry exhibitions were many and varied. The first “Type'A” exhibition staged in Ulster was “Life Line” - the story of the Merchant Navy - an appropriate display for the Western Approaches bridgehead of the United Kingdom. This was shown in Belfast, where 10,000 people came to see it, Londonderry, the Northern Naval base, and Bangor. In Belfast there were duplicated showings of the “Poison Gas” exhibition - an exhibition that had to be pushed hard to make the public take it seriously. One display was opened by the then Minister of Public Security, Mr. J.C, MacDermott, K.C. at the Central Library and the other at the Museum and Art Gallery by Major J.M. Sinclair, then Parliamentary Secretary to the Northern Ireland Ministry of Finance. “Tanks”, “Fire Guard” and many others followed, and all had their place in the grand plan to create a well informed public. At the gas exhibition we had lecture demonstrations and films. Cabinet Ministers took a keen interest in the displays and invariably accepted our invitations to declare the exhibitions open.

To revert to one of the earlier shows, reference should be made to the first of the purely picture exhibitions dealing with our Soviet Allies. In December, 1941, we received the first set in a case. It dealt with the Russian War Front. The material impressed the Regional Officer so much that he walked from his room to the Prime Minister's room, showed him the exhibition and invited him to open the display in two days. The Prime Minister agreed, and in a few minutes we had the Library offered to us. The show went on, supported by posters, literature and films. No small exhibition was ever boosted so much. At the opening ceremony messages were read from Mr. Eden, then Foreign Secretary, and M. Maiskey, Soviet Ambassador. We helped Ulster Government Departments considerably. The fine “Front Line” display, produced by the Ministry for the Ministry of Home Security, was adapted by this Region in consultation with the Ministry of Public Security for showing here, and it made a successful tour under the aegis of that Ministry. We supported 235 the W.V.S. and the Ministries of Food and War Transport in other attractive exhibitions.

Our industrial publicity centred a good deal on picture set exhibitions - small beautifully produced sets. At one time we had 55 sites permanently showing these sets - from large stores and cinema foyers to all types of factories, working full pressure on the war effort. The sets had great appeal in big shops. Great crowds flocked to see displays like “Mulberry Harbour”, “Normandy to the Rhine”, “Pacific Panorama” and, earlier still, “Give me a child of Six.”

In addition to the organisation of our own exhibitions and exhibitions in co-operation with the Fighting services, the full organisation of the Ministry was at the disposal of the British Council in the presentation of its many exhibitions in the Northern Ireland Region. The Council had no full time officer in Northern Ireland and a great weight of the preliminary organisation for exhibitions including the planning of opening ceremonies, the distribution of invitations, the issue of advertisements and the writing of advance publicity fell upon the Regional staff of the Ministry. The exhibitions, however, when they came, justified all the preliminary work that had been put in on them, as they presented a vivid picture of life in occupied Europe and of the glorious fight that exiled Europeans were making in the common struggle against Nazism. Many of the exhibitions naturally took the form of contrasting the surviving culture of overrun countries with the so-called culture of the Nazi ideology, and in this way they presented in a graphic form many of the atrocities which were being constantly perpetrated by Nazi hordes in Poland, Czechoslovakia and other European countries. The British Council brought to Northern Ireland many exhibitions which revealed the remarkable wealth of talent among the forces of the émigré Governments in Britain, and perhaps their most remarkable exhibition was the Allied Artists Exhibition which was staged in June, 1942, and opened by His Grace the Governor. The artists of many nations had works in this exhibition. Some exhibitions were confined to one artist, and among these was the “Star of David” display which was shown at the Belfast Museum in October, 1943. These artists’ impressions, drawn from life, of horrors of concentration camps were among the most moving proofs of the evil against which the United Nations fought.

Other exhibitions included those dealing with the Netherlands, with Czechoslovakia, Belgium and Yugoslavia. All the exhibitions were well supported by the public, although their quality justified in many cases larger attendances than were obtained. The exhibitions themselves were extremely well staged by the British Council and the official support at opening ceremonies was remarkably strong. This side of the Ministry's work we regarded as of extreme importance as it presented the inside of Europe at a time when the whole of the continent was dominated by Nazi hordes.

The enduring impression after years of continuous exhibitions is that they gave a vivid, diverse picture of the free world and its prosecution of total war. There were few thrills like seeing thousands of people queue to see the Stalingrad sword, or flow in a constant stream into the Service or Ministry shows. Then we felt that the effort had been worthwhile.