The Press: New Window

To view the U.S.S.R.’s eight million square miles and 193 million people, the foreign press has had but one peephole. Confined to the Moscow area, correspondents have long complained that distance and bureaucracy have obscured their view. Last week the Soviet Ukraine prepared to open another window. A dozen foreign newsmen would soon be invited to take up residence in Kiev.

The decision was evidently in answer to a U.S. request. Recently the State Department had asked eight Governments to allow full and impartial coverage of UNRRA’s work. (UNRRA has just gone to work in the Ukraine.) Even if the Soviet censors open a branch office at Kiev, as they doubtless will, the press would welcome the Ukrainian move. A second window into Russia might not give sufficient cross-ventilation, but it would at least give a change of scenery.