The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1912-12-11
WAR ESPECIAL"
HERSELF IN FIELD
How Correspondents With
Allies Have Collected
News.


front"
An attache of the American embassy
in London tells that he was aghast at
the array of self confident youths who
had poured through London during the
early weeks of the war. airily discuss
Ing the assignments they expected to
get from the general staffs OF the sew
eral combntants.
I'm fact" remarked the attache, IL
am incorrect in mentioning the general
staff | doubt il many of them had
ever heard OF such thing as a gener-
al staff or had the faintest idea of how
a modern war was waged or how a cor
respondent covered it. They seemed to
believe that all correspondent had to
do was to proceed to the seat of hos
tiities. Introduce himself to the com
mnnding general in that vicinity and
expect Immediately to be installed in
n front row seat with a pair of binocu-
lars in his hands, prepared to watch
the shells burst.
"A great many had no newspaper ex-
perienCe. Such as had seemed to have
war means. They evidently intended
to go about it as they would go about
covering a riot at home"
The Case of Lieutenant Wagner.
Yet another case Of successful report
ing of the Balkan war and perhaps the
best known one is that of Lieutenant
Herma1legilt Wagner. the correspond
ent of the Vienna ReichSpost, whose
dispatches from the Bulgarian head
quarters were for weeks the only
source of news concerning the Bul-
garian operations. Wagner has been
attacked by jealous fellow journalists
because some Of his dispatches have
turned out to be incorrect. But there
can be no doubt that he has scored an
effective hit and that his reporting has
been not only workmanlike, but as re
liable as such work can be done under
high stress and on the basis of infor
nation that is often misinformation
served cut for specific purposes.
As a matter of fact, Wagner. was
given his opportunity by the Bulgarian
general staff for \ specific purpoSe-the
dissemination of misleading intelli-
gence for the confusion of the Turks
The Turkish military intelligence bu-
reau is one of the most inefficient
branches of their organization, and
they have relied for information con
cerning their enemies plans almost en-
tirely upon the statements of the Eu
rOpean newspapers telegraphed to
them from their embassies.
Realizing this, the Bulgarians hit
upon the clever eXpedient of having
within call the representative of
conservative-the Reichspost is the or
gan Of the Austrian Clericals-foreign
journal who, in return for favors of
exclusive information furnished to
him, might be relied upon to serve
as the mOuthpiece for stories which
would be calculated to deceive the
Turks regarding their enemies plans
How successfully this scheme worked
Is revealed to any one who spends
little time in studying Wagner's dis
patches and the strategy of the war.
Wagner's Qualifications.
Wagner is a former officer in the
Austrian army, a man who has spe
cialized in the Balkans and Balkan
innate knowledge Of the several Ian
guages, especially Bulgarian.
He got his billet very largely be
cause of this-because, as has been
said, the Bulgarian general staff
wanted some man upon whose disin-
terestedness they could rely, who
would even be secretly in sympathy
with their foes; a man who would be
above suspicion beyond the boundaries
Of their country and who could be
used to advantage TO disseminate in
formation, false and true, which
might be of assistance to Bulgaria.
Wagner filled the requirements. He
was properly recommended, and he
got the billet. He was not an anna
teur.
Chance For Others.
If other correspondents had ap-
preached the several Balkan headquar-
ters in more or less the same spirit
they would probably have received
somewhat the same advantages. OF
course they would have been com
PEELED to give their words OF honor or
at least come to tentative under
standing that only such news as was
officially given to them was to be sent
out and that all such news was to be
sent out, no matter how unlikely il
might seem.
SO perhaps one is justified in deny
ing the assertions that war corre-
spOndence is at an end. Certainly war
correspondence is not to be conducted
as it was half century ago. Condi-
tions are altogether different. If the
war office makes the correspondents
task more difficult it must be recalled
that the task Of the war Office and its
representative, the censor, has like