In 1951, the US State Department and the US Information Agency initiated the making of the motion picture Small Town editor, for use in foreign countries, to encourage a rural press to supplement the usually Government controlled news.
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This film, made in Littleton, featured Hous-ton Waring, editor of the Littleton Independent, who had achieved national recognition for his editorials on foreign affairs.
WB (Curly) Annabel, of the Bega District News, in Australia, saw the film which dealt with the people, goals and produc-
tion of the Littleton Independent.
Entranced by the similarity of both papers, Curly began a correspondence with Houston in December 1954 and later visited the Waring family.
When President Eisen-hower urged sister-city relationships, Curly and Houston decided to form a bond between the two cities. This led to an invitation for the Warings to attend Bega Week in February 1961. While here, they formalised the association and Bega, 9000 miles from Littleton, became the first Australian town with a sister-city in America.
In August 1961 Curly took four young people from Bega to Littleton for Western Welcome Week. Thereafter the custom was established for Littleton to send a delegation on the first and sixth year, and for a Bega group to visit Littleton on the third and eighth year of the decade.
The delegates are hosted by member families and experience home life in another country, enjoy social events and tours of the local areas. A high point of each visit is the Civic Dinner attended by the delegates, Govern-ment representatives of both countries, members of various civic organisations, clergy and previous visitors.
An extended family
in constant communication has grown from the efforts of these two influential founders of the Bega-Littleton Citizens’ Exchange.