The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-12-09 00:00:00

THE TELEGRAPH AND THE WAR.

The Times gives the following intereating explanation
reppectlng tile dispatch of telegram by the Correspondents
at the seat of war

In the war which at present stands suspended by the
armistice the development of the transmission of news
by telegraph was so remarkable that it deserves more
than a passing notice. When Prince Milan issued the
proclamation in which he announced that he was put•
ting himself at the head of his army to take the field
against Turkey, a very large number of special cor-
respondents were sent to Belgrade from various parts
of Europe. There they found a spacious telegraph
office provided with a eensiderable staff of tele-
graphists, and it was at first supposed by the repre-
sentatives. of the newspapers that, as the actual
scenes of operations were so far distant from Bel-
grade, there would be no objection on the part
of the Sarvian authorities to the transmission by the
wire of despatches presented at the office in that city,
so long as they had reference only to movements which
had already been made. The whole country was well
supplied with means of telegraphic communication, but
even before any engagement was fought between this
belligerents ithad become known that anything like satis-
factory telegraphing from head-quarters to the public
press was hopeless. In reply to a request made on that
head to the Prince personalty by the representative of
The Times, his Highness told him teat he thought there
were grave objections to the speedy announcement
by telegraph of even Servian successes. However,
for the reason before stated, it was not apprehended
that there could be any objection to the free despatch
of telegrams from the Servian eapital. But this turned
out to be a mistake. Our correspondent offered to send
all his teliigrattis through Belgrade if an undertaking
were given to him that they would be duly transmitted
in their order, but was informed by one of the chiej
officials that not one of them would be sent on without
being previowly submitted to the Government if it con-
tained a word of polities or war news not copied from
the official gazette. The consequence of this wise
resolve was a loss of many hundreds of pounds to
the Servian Government, but a very great gain to-
journalism and the public. It obliged all the cor-
respor dents to take their messages to Semlin, which
is reached by steamer from Belgrade in a quarter of
an hour, or by a small boat in about three-quarters.
Semlin is in the Austro-Hungarian dominions, and
on the same bank of the Danube as Belgrade, but
separated from Servian soil by the Save. Semlin
itself is a very small town, but its telegraph office is
of Europe

lan_ reputation. - Great was the call made

on it th,

nghont the war; but. never in any one in

stance di,

ii-faU to keep pace with the requirement.

Every e
with te.

. .
sting for nearly five months it Lad to deal
grans written in the Engliph, French,

German,
guages,
those MI
veilous.
underbto
MIA Battl

Italian, Russian, Polish, %nil Serbish lan-
ud the rapidity and accuracy with which
ssa..es were transmitted was simply mar-
There was not an operator in the office who
d a word of English, and yet the account of
of Alexinatz, which appeared in The Times
_ _

of Septei
transmil

mber 4, and extended to nearly four columns, was
tted from &train without the mistake of a

'ord. Long telegrams banded in at the
Afice so late as eleven o'clock at
_night

were ri

eived_ by our _ Correspondent at Vienna

before
wires
to Lom
tion in
To the
graph "
many
to the
ackno,
dent rn.
of that
Hung,

and by means of our special
om Vienna to Paris and from Paris
at reached The Times office in time for puhFca-
ur earliest editions of the following morning.
linistration of the Austro-Hungarian Tele-
!partment credit is due for having provided so
istruments and "circles," and so large and
(fled a staff as Semlin was supplied with; but
lief of the office there and all his assistants our
tedgments are due for the courteous and effi-
inner in which they gave effect to the intentions
admirably conducted branch of the Austro-
Public Service.