The Public Information Office in Palestine before 1948 (Nakba), British Mandate: A Survey of Palestine: Volume II - Page 876. Chapter XXI: The Press: Section 2

CHAPTER XXI.

A number of the papers published weekly or at longer intervals in Hebrew are also published in English.

Section 2.

THE PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE.

9. Up to 1927 Government control of the press in Palestine was in the hands of the Criminal Investigation Department of the Palestine Police, where newspapers were read and by which translated extracts were circulated in official circles.

10. In 1928, a Press Bureau was tentatively established in the Secretariat. It was controlled by two secretaries as part-time duties and they had as assistants two specially appointed translators who were attached to the Central Translation Bureau of the Government.

11. In 1929, the report of the Shaw Commission passed certain strictures on the efficiency of Government control of the press and on the existing Press Bureau and in the following year Mr. R. A. Furness, C.B.E., who had been Oriental Secretary in Cairo, came to Palestine "en mission" to report to the Government on press control generally and on the reorganization of the Press Bureau in particular. He reported in June, 1931, and in the following November, the post of Press Officer to the Government was created and an appointment made. During the next three months the reorganization of the Press Bureau, based on Mr. Furness' recommendations, was approved on wider and more independent lines.

12. In May, 1938, the Press Bureau was reconstituted as the Public Information Office under a Public Information Officer. Since April, 1939, the Public Information Office has-paid increasing attention to what is now generally known as public relations work and has developed rather on the lines of a link and medium of contact between Government and the press than as an instrument for the control of the press, in accordance with modern democratic practice. With the establishment of the British Ministry of Information on the outbreak of war, the Public Information Office in Palestine undertook the performance of certain additional services on behalf of His Majesty's Government

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