Fog of war: The Silent Service: The Delicate Balance of Wartime Reporting Requires the Public to be Informed ... But Not of Everything (Reprint‪)‬

HALIFAX WAS CANADA'S FRONT-line city, the one town in the country where no one could forget the war. If they needed a reminder, they could just glance at the harbour, which was usually crammed with Allied warships and freighters engaged in the dangerous task of keeping Britain supplied with food, oil, and weapons. Thousands of recruits to Canada's navy were crammed into the city, along with merchant sailors, crews from Allied fleets, and war workers. It was one place in Canada where a spy could do serious damage to the Allied war effort. The federal government, at the urging of the navy, slapped special secrecy and censorship rules on Halifax to prevent leaks of information. The navy's attitude w as summed up well by one of its officers: "Upon sealed lips depend not only our ships, nor only the lives of fighting seamen in our warships, and merchant seamen engaged in holding the lifeline firm, but the success or failure of our arms. Should we lose command of the sea, we cannot hope to win the war." Word hadn't filtered down to the often chatty sailors and soldiers who had nowhere to stay but in crowded rooming houses and barracks. Most of these young people spent their time on the streets and in beer parlours, easy prey for any Axis spies and inquisitive local reporters.