Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1899-11-02
BRITISH CONTROL WAR NEWS.
Nothing Can Come from South Africa
Until It Has Been Censored.

Onthl Nv nus Decu NcnooECos
If ever a 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 on
unfavorable 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
iy cut off as the scene of the present
hostilities, and the censorship that Eng
land is exercising is simply stunning. All
news is not only censored at its start,
but il 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 hrst
call, and as a result London is the real
news center of the war.
In the first place, the Transvaal and
Orange Free State are utterly and COM
p.etely 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. 10th
these cities are in British territory. There
was land line from Pretoria to Loren
20 Marquee, which ran through Portu-
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
Beers, but she has so much sea coast and
is so near England that Johnny Bull has
her bluffed to standstill
News from Glencoe, Ladysrnith and
| other points in Natal can reach the out
| side world over the Durham and west
| coast line, or via Cape Town and the
east coast From Durham the cable runs
| 345 miles to Lorenzo Marquee Uaelogoa
Bay). Then it plunges again into the
! Indian ocean and emerges at Mosam-
| bique, 974 miles away, thence by cable
| to Zanzibar, 692 miles further, and final
| ly TO Alden. 1920 miles further. All
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,
| 1,403 miles, thence on land wires along
! the Suez canal to Port Said, 81 miles,
thence by cable to Alexandria, 154 miles.
thence to Malta, 92S miles; to Gibraltar,
| 1,126 miles; to Lisbon, 800 miles; to
Lands End, England, 500; then by land
| to London and from London to Dublin,
| thence to Waterville, Ireland. Then
comes the long plunge over the CONNER
cial cable to Nova Scotia, 2,34S miles.
Eight hundred and forty miles of cable
| remains, and the news is at New York.
| British military censors have 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, 1,13S miles; to Benguela,
234: to Loand, 296; to Acera, 075 miles;
to Sierra Leone, 1920; to Bathurst,
463 At Bathurst the cable leaves the
African coast and bobs up next at San
tiago, a British possession, near the Cape
Verde Islands, 40; to St. Vincent, 204
miles; to Madeira, ], ,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 ci-
| pher messages of any description to be
\ sent TO st. Vincent and her orders are
| being obcyed 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 anybody without the English 30. X
at the various relay stations.