Nothing new, in 1962, the WTS said they did not expect to reach everybody personally. Good CYAing, WTS.
2/1/1962 WT pp. 95-96 Questions from Readers
What is the meaning of the following statement, recorded at Matthew 10:23: "You will by no means complete the circuit of the cities of Israel until the Son of man arrives"?
Accordingly, by means of his instructions to his twelve apostles Jesus was prophetically telling us today that his anointed disciples or the remnant of spiritual Israel would not complete the circuit of the entire inhabited earth with the preaching of the message of God’s established kingdom before the glorified heavenly King Jesus Christ would arrive as Jehovah’s executional officer in the battle of Armageddon. This means that Jehovah’s witnesses today, who now include hundreds of thousands of the "other sheep" or earthly companions of the spiritual remnant, will not be able to reach personally all parts of the earth with the Kingdom message before the battle of Armageddon breaks out.
We may be driven from one city to another by the persecution upon Jehovah’s witnesses, yet we should keep going. Why? Because, even being driven by the scattering power of the persecution to outside locations, we shall not be able to reach all the territory directly, personally, before the war of God Almighty’s great day breaks out and destroys the people of this wicked world and thus puts a finis to our work of witnessing to such worldly people.
Blondie