The Reuter Christmas anthem

I wonder whether anyone remembers the Reuter Christmas Anthem and if they can identify the long-forgotten sub-editor who wrote it in 1943. It was reprinted in Reuters World No 33 in December 1985, contributed by Alfred Geiringer, then 74, former head of Reuters Commercial Services. He couldn’t remember the sub-editor’s name but did recall that she often handled stories from the Russian front during World War II and that “she died young and there was a child for whom Reuters staff made themselves responsible in some way for a time”. He said the reference to “editors who shout” was aimed at Muriel Penn, who joined Reuters in 1931 as a sub-editor and retired at the end of 1969.

The Reuter Christmas Anthem

O Lord Grant us our daily news,

And give us time to pick and choose,

And feature what we find.

Grant us the gift of prophecy

And let the opposition be

A day or two behind.

Deliver us from Foreign names,

From censorship and libel-claims

And editors who shout.

Grant us the gift of prophecy

And make your great events agree

With what we’ve just put out.

Persuade the ‘Mail’ and the ‘Express’

To quote themselves a little less

And us a little more -

And when we end, remember well:

We have already dealt with ‘hell’

And quite enough - before.

Grant us the gift of prophecy

And get us rights to cable free

Until our day is done.

And grant us when our time is due

A quite exclusive interview

Slugged Snapfull

Doomsday 1.

[In the penultimate stanza ‘hell’ refers to the Hellschreiber, forerunner of the radio teleprinter, which produced the bulk of German, Russian and Italian copy at that time - Editor.] ■