ABSTRACT
During this period, news events involving the three Services appear normally to have been handled with a notable lack of friction between the Press and officials, perhaps because there was minimal official centralisation and politicisation, allowing interaction on the spot between journalists and local authorities. Thus in January 1924, when the submarine L24 was lost with her crew off Portland, every assistance was given by local naval commanders to correspondents sent to report the disaster. And so too at the end of the following year when the submarine M1 sank; a shortage of telephones apart, the PA correspondent was well pleased with access given, even to German diving equipment onboard the search vessel. The imperial operations of the three Services were similarly reported sympathetically; Reuters was complimented on its despatch from Hong Kong on firefighting by Servicemen in a serious conflagration at a local hotel, in which Prince George played a prominent part.
