London, Aug. 22.
Complaints by American news agencies of the slowness of British communiques, particularly those relating to air battles, by comparison with German communiques, were raised at question-time in the House of Commons last night.
Mr. Alfred Duff-Cooper, Minister of Information, in replying, said it must be borne in mind that so far as recent air raids on Britain were concerned, German propagandists had had two considerable advantages: firstly, previous knowledge when a raid was to take place, and secondly, complete disregard for the truth.
"This enabled them," he added, "to begin sending false accounts of a battle to America before the machines had actually reached this country."
However, Mr. Duff-Cooper informed the House, he was arranging, in conjunction with Sir Archibald Sinclair, ihe Air Secretary, and Sir John Anderson, the Home Secretary, to accolorate the dispatch of news, and he was glad to say that press messages went through more rapidly on the occasion of last Sunday's air raids.—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.