A Letter From The Publisher, Apr. 10, 1944

General MacArthur has said that “news is as necessary to the combat soldier as bread and bullets.” And I can’t help feeling you will be proud to learn that TIME has been the leader in every single venture undertaken by any American magazine to get accurate, impartial news from home to our troops overseas in the shortest possible time. So this week I thought you might like to see the complete record:

TIME was the first magazine to invent a miniature “Pony” Edition for overseas distribution (November 23, 1942).

TIME was the first to publish a special edition for our troops in Australia (January 25, 1943); the first to publish a special edition in Hawaii for our armed forces in the Central Pacific (August 16, 1943). TIME was the first U.S. magazine to be published for our troops in Iran (September 13, 1943); the first to be published for our troops in the China-Burma-India theater (November 22,1943) ; the first to be published for our troops in the Middle East (January 24, 1944); the first to print a Pony Edition in Honolulu for fast distribution to our armed forces in the Gilberts, the Marshalls and the South Pacific (March 27, 1944).

TIME was the first to begin sending copies to all Army and Navy subscribers overseas by first class mail to reach them as quickly as their letters from home (August 2,’ 1943).

TIME was also the first to make copies available for plane distribution to our troops in North Africa (April 5, 1943), and the first to make copies available for large-scale distribution to our troops in England, thereby breaking a log jam and making it possible for the Army to distribute a number of other magazines in England.

And, of course, even before Pearl Harbor TIME started the world’s first plane-delivered magazine (TIME Air Express for Latin America), thereby bringing our troops in the Canal Zone and all over the Caribbean many news-days closer to home. TIME was also the first American magazine to publish in Mexico City (to get the news faster to Mexico and Central America), in Bogotá (to get the news faster to Brazil and Uruguay), and in Buenos Aires (to get the news faster to the Argentine). And a few months ago TIME, with its Scandinavian Edition printed in Stockholm, became the first magazine published inside the German blockade (January 24, 1944).

The war has imposed almost unbelievable new burdens upon our correspondents, our editors, and our researchers. It has also made unprecedented demands on the resourcefulness and resolution of the men whose job it is to get TIME printed and distributed all over the world. It seems to me they have done a wonderful job. In any event, they have done a job which has won for your newsmagazine a truly unique position with our armed forces overseas. They have done such a good job that it seems to me only right that I should let you know about it.