The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-03-18

pany its armed force to the place of his
assignment. This permission is usual
~ given. although not always. Lord
Kitchener, for instance. would not toll
crate the presence of war correspond
ents with his force in the Sudan cam
paign In cases of that kind the work
becomes harder. but must still be done.
If the commander of any fleet or war
ship does not desire the presence of
special correspondents his Government
will not force them upon him. Every
correspondent on an American ship dur
ing the Spanish war was there bv
courtesy of the commanding officer Of
the ship.
Having obtained permission to ac-
company the fleet or the land COM
rnand to which he has been assigned,
the special correspondent is told where
to report and to whom and when He
must give his word, on his part, 10
conform to the rules of the service,
and to send nothing to his newspaper
without first submitting it to the CEN
sor, if he is with the army, or to the
captain of the ship he is assigned to
if he is with the navy.
So long as he observes this pledge
he is allowed to come and. go as he
likes, within reasonable limits. He is
furnished passes through the lines up
on application and he has recognized
status as non-combatant. He is in
no danger, SO long as he sticks to his
trade, of being shot if he falls into the
hands of the enemy.
On the other hand he is in very grave
danger all the time, as will readily be
seen. If he is on board a warship-
where, as matter of form, he is gen.
orally assigned to staff duty, so that he
will find his place and go to it quietly
when the men are called to quarters
he must, of course, share the fortune
of the ship when she goes into action.
If he is with land force he must get
as close to the front as he can. The
front is where things happen, and he
is there to chronicle happenings. If
there ever was time when war cor
respondent could sit in a hotel a thou
sand miles from the scene of action and
write a description of battle COM
fortably to be cabled at his leisure, that
time is not now. The march of events
is rapid. The man who would see must
be in the middle of things.
After a battle has been won or lost
the special correspondent must hurry
to the cable station to get his report
of the action filed, writing the report,
if he can, on the way. He has been
working all the time the others were
fighting, but in reality his work only
begins in earnest when they leave off.
Whether the action he has seen be one
mile away from telegraph office or
a thousand, whether he finds himself
facing a desert or a stormy sea, he
must spare neither steam nor money,
nor man nor horsehesh, to get into
touch with the home office. OF course,
he must not spare himself. If he did
he would soon find his managing editor
sparing him.
A great man may witness a great
action and write of it most wildly, and
yet see himself beaten by SIS week
local correspondent of the North China
Gazette if he be lacking in the talent
to move on the cable office at the
moment. A successful
war correspondent. in a word, must be
always and at all times the man who
is on the spot. AS the spot may have
a habit of shifting over a thousand
square miles of plane surface it will be
seen that he must be well nigh
ubiquitous. He must be impervious to
fatigue, able to do without sleep, care |
less of hunger, reckless of danger, yet
warily alert against it in the interest |
Of the newspaper that has sent him to
The front at enormous expense.