Evening star., 1915-10-17

| ing their matter that are almost shock
| ing to those who know what the Rus
sian censorship can be on occasion. The
| Russian internal censorship has been
! greatly relaxed for the same reason,
| although the Russian mass has not de-
| manded the same quantity and quality
| of information democracy feels is its
| right.
| From the moment the early rigidity
of the censorship relaxed France has
been more liberal than any of the war
| ring countries. Correspondents have
been given privileges here that are re-
| fused them elsewhere. At no time has
| there been any suggestion of propagan-
| da There are centain restrictions as to
| the. use of the cable at times, but no ef-
| fort has ever been made to restrict the
use of the mails. No case has arisen
in which correspondent is charged
with revealing military secrets, and
comment has been entirely unrestr1ct-
| ed. In England the other day the cor
respondent of an American weekly in
the textile trade was sentenced to pris-
on for comments upon England's wool
| trade An incident of that sort has
never occurred in France.
This Is not to say that Frances in
| ternal censorship is not a severe one.
Publications of sort calculated to
| shake the courage of the people are
very properly forbidden. But there
are scores of periodicals in France
| in which the very fraest sort of free
speech appears. Now and then an is
sue Is confiscated or an entire article
is excised. But nothing happens to
the writer NJ Clemenceau and Gus
tave Herve and others lambast the
government literally upon occasion.
One member of the government is pri-
vately quoted as expressing the opin-
ion of the cabinet:
I'VE resent what they say" said this
man. but they have done good.
Democracies exist because of free
speech"
Different in Germany and Austria.
In Austria and Germany conditions
| are different Autocracies as they
are, the right of the people to know
something of what is going on is rec
ognized. 1t is possible. as charged,
that the news that comes from the
| outside may be literally doctored, but
| the people may read daily of the tri-
| umphs and suffering of their soldiers.
There is a great press headquarters
| with both the Austrian and German
armies, and properly accredited cor or
| respondents are given considerable
| liberty in seeing and writing. The
men live with the armies. which is not
| the case in any of the other countries.
| 1t cannot be doubted that popular en-
| thusiasm and determination has been
forts. Every great battle has been de-
scribed by writers who have seen
something of what they tell. They
are what war correspondents used to
| be, plus a strict censorship.
| The conclusion is that as the war
goes on the correspondent will be
given an increased opportunity. He
| may never again be permitted to de-
scribe great military opsration from
| a reserved seat at the front. There is
reason for that quite apart from the
| effect his report may have. Under
modern conditions a correspondent is
a frightful nuisance during any real
activity. If he gets where he can see
anything at all. he is in danger. and
he must have a chaperon told off to
care for him. AT such times every SOL
dier is needed for something besides
wetnursing newspaper men. But he
will be permitted to keep his public
informed of the greater and more i'm
nortant developments-and in war
such as this is there is no newspaper
room for anything else. He has be
come a commentator rather than re-
porter.