Definition Wanted

The Tokyo press corps, in open rebellion against peacetime Army censorship, last week drew up a bill of complaint against General Douglas MacArthur's policy on news. For 18 months, said the report sent to the General, correspondents had tried to get his definition of military security. They got none. Meanwhile, the excuse of "security" had "been used repeatedly in an effort to control or influence the handling of news."

Other major complaints:

P: That MacArthur's headquarters had written to at least nine correspondents' employers, seeking to "embarrass" the newsmen or get them removed.

P: That one correspondent had been excluded from Japan for "marked antipathy toward American policy. At one time or another almost every correspondent . . . has faced the same charge."

P: That Army agents had raided the Tokyo home of a correspondent who had criticized the occupation. He had been "subjected to interrogation and threats."

P: The correspondents felt that ex-General Frayne Baker, MacArthur's overzealous P.R.O., was to blame for a lot of the pushing around they had endured. Last week, Baker took his time about forwarding the complaints to the boss; at week's end there had been no reply from MacArthur.

A copy of the report was sent to the American Society of Newspaper Editors. If General MacArthur did not change his ways, the correspondents hoped that the A.S.N.E. would investigate "intimidation, coercion and censorship" in Japan.

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