Damien Parer Joins The

Americans

LATEST Australian to go over to the Americans is Damien Parer, whose films showing Australian troops in action in the Middle East, Greece, Crete, New Guinea and the South Pacific, put the Australian Department of Informa tion—and Australia —cinematically on the map. Early this month he was accre dited a war photographer with Para mount Films, and granted a licence to accompany Allied troops in the SW Paci fic area.

The Department of Information won a great victory when Parer resigned in August; they had refused to grant his reasonable request for an increased expense allowance. No doubt the Depart ment is still warmed by a bureaucratic glow at having “shown him”; but they have lost Australia the outstanding photographer produced by World War II in the Pacific.

Parer does not produce mere news-reels; he has the rare gfit of capturing the soul of his theme and presenting it to his audience as a living, personal experience.

But bureaucrats do not like ability—their job is to pare down the pennies so that thousands may be more spectacularly wasted in other directions. If we want genius—let’s import it from abroad.' The imported article must be good; the local prophet is notoriously without honour in Australia.