The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1900-05-24
ABSURD TURKISH CENSORSHIP
PIaywriShts and Newspapers Are
the Victims OF Its Mach
nations.

The Constantinople correspondent of
the Berliner Tageblatt, writing on the
censorship as practiced in the sultan's
capital, gives some amusing instances
of its application, says the New York
Tribune. When the French tragedian
Mounet-Sully was playing there last
autumn he gave, among other things,
Hugo's ''Ruy Bias" The faithless min
listers in this piece are represented as
dividing their loot of the government
treasury among themselves. All this
passage had to be stricken out-would
not the public make its own applica-
ton of the story to existing affairs?
In the scene where Ruy Bias surprises
the ministers, hurls them his scornful
bon appetit, messieurs!" and then
chases them out, the situate had to
be changed so that the stage manager
should come out and thus address the
public: Ladies and gentlemen, the
ministry has sent in its resignation"
Ministers must not be chased out in
sight of the people. What would be-
come of the existing order? The spec
tators were at first bewildered by this
turn of affairs, but they soon saw
the point, and the theater echoed with
their uproarious laughter and cries of
Bon appetit, messieurs!"
a special study is needed to be able
to bring out newspaper without the
censor's displeasure. There are hun
dreds of words and phrases that must
not be used at all, however harmless
their application may be. For instance,
the word meaning stupid" and CORE
spending words in foreign languages
must not appear. Somebody might
feel insulted. 1t is forbidden to speak
of the Bulgarian or Greek Frontiers"
it must be the Line of demarcation."
You do not write that the state of
trade is unfavorable, but that an i'm
provement in the conditions is expect
ed-don't write pessimistically, what
ever you do! Do not speak of the prin-
cipality of Bulgaria, but of the East
Rumelian Nilayet. For the censor no
such thing exists as a concession for
the building of a Bagdad railway;
NNNig lllNlILlOll VI lllG Is
ruthlessly stricken out. AS for the
Transvaal war, any criticism is forbid
den-only news kilograms and reports
of actual facts are permitted to APP
pear. The friendly feeling for the
Beers, which, notwithstand reports to
the contrary, is continually growing,
may annoy the British embassy
Even the censorship of kilograms has
reached a limit hitherto unimagined.
A merchant recently sent a telegram to
Holland that read: ''Steel not accept
ed; quotation in the Berliner Tage-
blatt correct" 1t related to a ship
ment of steel that had not been accept
ed because the price had fallen in the
meantime, as was indicated by the pub
lished quotations. After an hours de-
lay the telegram was returned to the
sender, with request to give a trans
lation of it in French or German He
sent back the sarcastic reply that he
was not translator, and finally sent
it by mail to Bulgaria and had it tele-
graphed from there. Going to the tele-
graph office, he got his money back,
and then handed to the official a trans
lation of his message, for the satisfac-
ton of the censor" The official read
the message and said: ''Why, we could
have sent that without any trouble"
"Of course-what did the honorable
censor think was hidden in it?''
The official shook his head, looked
his customer over solemnly and finally
said:
I'VE thought your telegram related
to the recent reports in the Berliner
Tageblatt that the Dutch ambassador,
Van der Stael had not been received
by the sultan, of which nothing is al
lowed to be telegraphed."
The result of this sort of stupidity is
that all press kilograms and large
part of business messages are sent by
mail to the Bulgarian frontier, to be
telegraphed from there. so that thou
sands of pounds annually are lost to
the Turkish government. The govern
ment is well aware of it, but cannot
take courage to abolish the censor
ship.