Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-09-30

published in the London Times on
September II. 1t is a letter from the
London correspondent of a New York
! newspaper. and it complains of the
difficulties the writer and other rep
resentatfves of American newspapers
in London have had in sending news
of the European war through the
news censor to their newspapers. He
says:
ITO the Editor of the Tin1es-Sir:
l have read with much pleasure in
the Times of this morning the lead
ing article headed The Judgment of
America. ! have the honor to rep
resent in London a famous New York
newspaper. which publishes morning
and afternoon, and the news service
of which appears in a very large
number of important newspapers
throughout the United States, Can
ada, the West Indies and South
America.
Naturally / should have liked to
have cabled to my paper this morn
ing extensive quotations from the
article referred to. / did not do SO,
as in spite of the advantage of five
hours in time that we have in cabling
from London to New York, the ex-
perience of the last five weeks has
shown that it was impossible to. hope
for the message to get through in
Jilne for publication. This may seem
to be an extraordinary, even incred-
ible, state of things, but 1t is the
truth.
The press and the people of this
country nave shown in no doubtful
manner their appreciation of the
sympathy and support of American
opinion in this great crisis. 1t is
surely strange, then, that the repre-.
sentatives in London of the chief
American newspapers and news
agencies, to whom at least some
share in the formation of that Amer
lean opinion must be attributed,
should be treated by the British war
office as if they We're working for an
avowedly hostile press and people.
"All of us recognize the necessity
and desirabiiity of a press censorship
sit such a time. Not one of us would
willingly send any information the
publication of which could be in the
slightest degree detrimental to the in
terests of the country in which We
are guests. Nevertheless. it is inn
possible longer to disguise from our
selves the fact that we are treated as
suspect
I'VE have asked for but received
no information of what is to be con-
sidered as matter that may not be
cabled TO America. We have discov-
cred by the costly process of expert
nent that neither matter which APP
pears in the London newspapers
after passing the censor nor even
the official announcements of the
press bureau, are necessarily avail
able for publication in America. both
being frequently stopped altogether
or mutilated -out of all sense and
meaning This we can only discover
when the newspapers come over from
America and from information from
our American headquarters.
All the ordinary relations between
client and merchant have been
stopped as between ourselves and the
various cable companies. We cannot
find out from the companies whether
our messages have been sent or not.
AT an hour in the morning when 1t Is
obviously too late for matter that Is
not already on the wire to be in time
for publication, we cannot find out
whether any of our messages are still
in hand SO that we may cancel or alb
breviate them. Any request for In
formation meets with the reply: Our
Office is in the hands of the censor;
we are not allowed to answer any
questions or give any information
"One finds no more satisfaction in
applying to the censorship itself Ny
own experience is as follows: The
day after the censorship had been es-
tablished I called at the war office
and sent my card with an inquiry
form duly filed up to the chief censor.
With very little delay I was con-
Quoted to his office. My card was
taken in, and a gentleman came out
who told me that the chief censor was
engaged. He talked to me vaguely
for a few minutes in the lobby. but
was, regretfully, unable to give me
any information. with the slightest de-
gree of preciseness beyond the fact
that military movements were not to
be reported. More recently ! wished
to ask the censor a definite question,
and again called at the war, office. /
was again conducted to the door of
his office without delay. Another gem
tleman came out and talked with me
for few minutes In the lobby. The
chief censor was out; he thought ,he
would be back In about an hour, but
he himself could not deal with the
question / asked--a very simple one,
"ro show that our Complaints are
not made without good reason, |
would like to give a few examples of
our experiences. ! could fill column
with similar happenings. One day
this week | received a cable from
New York informing me that nothing
at all of the previous nights cable