Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1899-11-02
BRITISH CONTROL WAR News.
Nothing Cam Come from South Afric.
Until It Has Been Censored

Nothing Can Come from South Afric.
Until It Has Been Censored.
II ever country was bottled up. South
Africa Is. England has complete control
OF all news outlets, and she evidently has
enough censors over there to choke Off
unIavorable news, and some relations of
the late lamented Blanco to send wild
and Woolly tales Of victories won. The
cable companies in New York say that
they never knew OF place so complete
" cut or as the scene of the present
hostilrtles, and the censorship that Eng
land is exercising is simply stunning. All
news Is not only censored at It's start.
but 1t Is held UP from one to four times
en- route, and finally is for the most part
delivered through London American
German and French newspapers and
press associations have sent big corps OF
men to South Africa, but they get mighty
little show, even with their messages
that have been mangled by the censors.
The English newspaper men get first
call, and, as result, London is the real
news center Of the war.
In the first place, the Transyaal and
Orange Free State are utterly and COM
pletely cut off, so far as land wires go.
The only outlet has been through Dur
ban, In Natal, on the east coast, and
Cape Town on the west coast. Both
these cities are in British territory. There
was land line from Pretoria to Loren-
20 Marquee, which ran through Portd-
guese territory, but this has been inter-
rupted either by actually cutting the wire
or by diplomatic chicanery with Portu-
gal. Portugal sympathizes with the
ROprS Sha hoe =
is so near England that Johnny Bull has
her bluffed to a standstill.
News from Glencoe, Ladysmith and
other points in Natal can reach the OUT
side world over the Durham and west
east coast. From Durham the cable runs
345 miles to Lorenzo Marquee Delogoa
Bay. Then 1t plunges again into the
Indian ocean and energies at Mosam-
bique, 974 miles away, thence by cable
to Zanzibar, 692 miles further, and final
ly to Alden, 1920 miles further. ALI
this by cable. At Alden the British CEN
sorship is supreme.
From Alden the news goes under the
whole length of the Red Sea to Suez,
1, 4O3 miles, thence on land wires along
the Suez canal to Port Said, 80 miles,
thence by cable to Alexandria, 134 miles.
thence to Malta, 92S miles; to Gibraltar,
1,126 miles; to Lisbon, 800 miles; to
Lands End, England, 800; then by land
to London and from London to Dublin,
thence to Wateryille, Ireland. Then
comes the long plunge over the CONNER
cial cable to Nova Scotia, 2,348 miles.
Eight hundred and forty miles Of cable
remains, and the news is at New York.
British military censors have a whack
at it at Durham, Alden, Suez, Alexandria,
Gibraltar and London.
Over the west coast route the start is
made at Cape Town, thence by cable to
Mossamedes, LBS miles; to Benguela,
234; to Loand, 296; to Acera, 075 miles;
to Sierra Leone, 1,02O; to BATHURST,
463. At Bathurst the cable leaves the
African coast and hobs up next at Sam
tiago, British possession, near the Cape
Verde Islands, 40; to st. Vincent, 204
miles; to Madeira, 1,169; to Lisbon, 632;
thence to London, following the same
route as news from the east coast.
The only place in all this west coast
route where leak might occur is at st.
Vincent, where there is cable to Brazil.
England has forbidden all code and Cd
pher messages Of any description to be
sent to ST. Vincent and her orders are
being obeyed to the letter.
On all the east coast lines all cipher
and code messages are forbidden, just as
ON the west coast, and nothing, even re-
motely relating to the war, can be sent
by any body without the Eng'ish 70. K.
at the various relay stations.