Evening star., 1915-10-17
Reversal of Conditions Affect
ing Correspondents in Eng
land, France and Russia.
GIVE AID IN ALLAYING
DISCONTENT OF PEOPLE
Austria and Germany Liberal-Per.
NIT the News Writers to Live
With the Armies.
Copyright, 1850

I.
was apparent that correspondents were
not to be given the freedom they had
| in other wars. They could not live at
| Headquarters. ride an army mule and
| call the general commanding Jimmy
So that this conclusion was reached:
THE war correspondent" said many
eminent people, "is deader than a salt
| mackerel His occupation is gone. He
will have to do police court reporting
or go into the movies"
1t looked that way at the time. Cor
| respondents landed jauntily in Eng
land, covered with medals and equipped
with khaki uniforms and tin stoves.
they met with an incalculable degree
| OF courteous frost at the war depart
ment They came to France and were
arrested in platoons and confined in
| COW stables. They went to Russia and
| were elected from that empire with
| certainty and dispatch. A squad OF
the most talented OF the profession
| the German army found out about it
| they were put over the frontier. There
vas even some talk of shooting one or
two as spies.
| Now the war correspondent has come
into his own. He has won triumph
| over the military organizations of the
allies and the central powers. Or per-
| maps. the military organizations have
mo bilized him. 1t is matter of opin-
ion. In any case he is as important as
he ever was. but in different way.
His methods have been brought up to
date, as becomes practitioners of cor
respondence in this war of submarines
and aeroplanes and gas.
He has become an asset instead of a
potential liability is the way one pub
licist defined his present activity.
Fear of Disclosures.
At the beginning of the war the mill
tary element had quite justifiabIe
fear tnat the correspondent might re-
veal military secrets. The average Of
ficer of staff rank also has a perfectly
irrational but quite military contempt
for all professions not directly con-
nected with soldering. Now he has
learned that he is beset with troubles
back home unless the correspondent
is called to his aid. Those responsible
for the conduct of the various govern
ments have also learned that the corre-
spondent can straighten- out tangles
that otherwise might be dangerous.
Three weeks ago there was an unde-
niable feeling in France that England
had not been doing her part France
was not to blame-for it. She had been
denied all information. Fews French
men read the English papers, in which
the activities Of the fleet and army are
set out at length. The French papers
have been greatly reduced in size be-
cause of the war. The space availa BILE
was naturally taken up by the news of
their own soldiers. There was the pos
sibility of unpleasant friction.
Let us send correspondents to the
English 'front.' was the suggestion of
those in authority here.
The correspondents were not war cor
respondents of the old sort, it is true.
They were men whose names are known
in, France by reason of their literary
activities. They told what the English
are doing in the generous and enthu-
siastic way peculiar to the Frenchman
We in Paris could feel almost over
night the difference in sentiment here
The man on the street has his eyes
opened.
Then the English are fighting, after
all2" said he.
There was still the matter of the
English fleet Few of the middle class
Frenchmen had credited the fleet with
the important functions it is perform
ing.
This fleet, then." said one to me,
what is it doing? 1t does not ight?"
He must not be blamed for that. He
has two sons and a brother somewhere
at the front. His attention is centered
on what the French soldiers are doing,
and he did not realize that the English
fleet has not merely swept German
commerce from the seas, but has pen
ned up an enemy feet that would other
wise have ravaged French shores. With
the consent of the English naval au-
thorities. party of French journalists
visited the fleet. Their descriptions of
it may almost be described as raptur-
Gus. I met my doubling friend the
Frenchman this morning.
They "Did Not Know"
why were we not told of this fleet
before?' he asked. I'VE did not know"
This is not propaganda. but the dis
semination of information to which the
public is entitled. In England the
working classes have been uneasy from
the beginning of the war. There have
been strikes and quarrels over minor
matters. This week a party of thirty
English and American journalists visit
ed the great French centers of NUM-
ton making. Their report was of lit
tie interest to the average reader. who
knows and cares little how guns are
made. But somewhere in each article
emphasis was placed upon the spirit of
the French workman.
1--WE do not strike" he says. Not we
We are IN the war as much as those
others at the front"
1t Is to be assumed that the English
workman will take the moral to heart.
Almost coincidentally various English
writer's Ol uolc"nlpllHS ana Bennett
and others-were guests of the French
army. Because England has concen-
trated it's attention on its own army,
for perfectly natural reasons, it seems
probable that a feeling has grown up
that this war is an altr6istic enterprise
on England's part. Robert Blatchford,
in the London Sunday Dispatch, voiced
this feeling the other day in an article
in which he declared-this quotation
is perhaps not verba tim-that I'VE are
fighting for France"
Nothing of this sentiment appears
in the writings of the men / aIlude
to. There can be no doubt that this
correction of a prevailing misconcep-
ton will be of value in France as
well as in England. Frenchmen believe
that England Is fighting quite as much
for her own preservation as for that
of France, and the thought voiced by
Blatchford has created much bitter
ness here. None of these causes of
friction need have arisen If correspond
ents had been given the freedom in
the past that it appears they are to
have in the future.
Experience in Russia.
In different way a similar and
equally legitimate use was made of
English correspondents in Russia At
the outset they were barred. There has
been an age-long enmity between Eng
land and Russia, and If England were
to be denied knowledge of what her
eastern ally was doing there would
be at least probability of serious