Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1901-07-26
WORRIES THE SPECIAL
The Way the British Army Censor
in South Africa Blue PEN
cils His Stuff.
LITTLE ALLOWED TO COME THROUGH
Partly the Fault of Great Jour-
naIs..Boer Barbarities
Held Up.

| New York. July 26.-The war cor
respondents in South Africa have
united in revolt against the military
censorship. says the London CORE
spOndent of The Tribune. Bennett
Burleigh, veteran of many cam
paigns, describes the censorship as u
'bungle and Il blunder," and declares
that the sooner the whole matter of
| unofficial correspondence is put upon Il
definite basis conformable to free In
| stitutiOnS the better it will be for ev-
erybody. Edgar Wallace asserts that
| there is nothing so far as the military
position is concerned TO justify the
| maintenance of censorship, and that it
is creating a bad precedent. since The
only service which it can render is Il
| political one Savoring somewhat of
Russia: nay, il is krugerian."
Says Nothing amt Saws Wood. Probably.
Howell Glynue. who has remained in
the field continuously since the out
| break of the war. holds his peace. In
addition TO the general restrictions
! based on military reasons established
at the opening of Uhe war the follow
| ing regulations enables any censor 10
reject or cOndense every dispatch SUb-
mitted to him: In future the length
of correspondents wires will he in
proportion To the Importance of The
news contained therein" The CORE
SpondentS consequently are disabled
and unable 10 Justify by cable work
the expenses of their service The
country, which is heavily taxed for Il
costly war. does not know what is
going on, and is forced TO be content
with the casualty lists. and Lord
kitchener'S inventories of Beers
killed. wounded. and surrendered. and
of stock, rifles and ammunition cap
rured.
Fault Lies with the Papers
1t must be stated. in Justice to the
war office. that the London Journals
We're warned in advance that their cor
respondents would nor he left ut lib
erty to write and so as they pleased.
and were asked to adopt practical
measures for reducing the number Of
men i'm service and for relieving the
wires from the pressure of newspaper
work. These consultations at the out
break of the wwar We're fruitleSS. and
break of the war We're fruitleSS. and
scores of CORES pondentS were sent to
South Africa without any attempt on
the part of the newspapers to regulate
the business of reporting campaign
news. With long lines of cOmmunica
tion and with the wires ClOGged with
routine messages required for the
movement of troops and the provision
ing of great army. tn" press dis
patches were neglected, held back, con-
denSed and mutilated.
Something Not Easy TO Understand.
1t is not easy 70 understand what
are the political motives for the sup
preston of news from the seat of war.
The government has Il well-drilled,
Obedient majority in the commons,
and is supported by the great mass of
opinion in the country. There is no
revolt against it. either on the minis
isteT'al side or in the constituencies
where bye-electionS are held. Some
of the incidents which have been sup
pressed would bear heavily against
the advocates of the Dutch cause, both
here and on the continent. The
Vlakfontein atrocities. for example, if
fully confirmed in detail. would tend
to ALLEVIATE the sympathy of irrescon-
cilable radicals and admiring foreign
ers for the Beers.
Some Other Suppression Suggested.
The fact that the horrible story of
the shooting of the wounded has been
suppressed for over a month and left
te come out little by little in soldiers
letters TO their friends at home. eXcites
suspicion that there may have been
drastic measures on the British side
i'm effecting the clearance of various
districts and in establishing cOncentra-