Arizona republican., 1917-02-20
To
PUT THEIR SIDE
BEFORE PUBLIC


BERNIE. Feb. 19-(From a staff
correspondent of the Associated Press.)
According to statements made to the
correspondent before his departure
from Berlin with former Ambassador
Gerard by public men in Germany, the
German government did not awake
until long after the beginning of the
war to the desirability of making a
favorable impression on public opinion
in neutral countries, or at least of hav-
ing its side of the case given hearing
in the neutral press An outlay of I'M
told hundreds of thousands of marks
has since been made with the employ
ment of considerable staffs of officers
and men and with constantly changing
systems, in the effort to achieve the
desired ends.
Correspondents from neutral coun-
tries have experienced constant diff
Guilty since the beginning of the war in
attempting to report facts in an UNI
biased manner. In the thirtieth
month of war Germany applied the
same newspaper methods to American,
Dutch, Scandinavian and Spanish
newspaper men as in the first months
The censorship has been the main
source of trouble, largely because it
has been working at cross purposes
it in their power to adjust the diff
culties.
Shortly after the outbreak of the
war, the foreign office modified con-
suls who supposedly were familiar
with foreign languages and installed
them as censorS. In reality few of
them are well versed in any language
except German. None of them has any
conception of newspaper work or any
military or political knowledge which
gives especial qualifications for the
task. The correspondents speedily
"ame into conflict with the censors and
the government attempted to remedy
the trouble. However. its efforts con-
sisted of opening up additional chan
nels of news which the censors stopped.
The foreign office created the So
called central bureau for foreign SER
vice which flooded neutral countries
with photographs and with literature
written from the German standpoint.
merely translated into Dutch, Swedish
or Rumanian.
The constantly increasing number of
correspondents in Germany all seek
ing an opportunity to see something of
the war and to obtain news. led TO the
establishment of what was known as
the neutral war press bureau. Theo-
Major Deutelmoser. a man well quail
fled for the position, but he was SO
occupied with other things that he rele-
gated this work to subordinate.
This bureau existed from October.
1915, until last summer. Under its
auspices correspondents Travelled to
various fronts, submitting all dis
patches for censorship. 1t became ap-
parent quickly that the bureau was at
odds with the foreign Office. It sought
to extend the jurisdiction so as to CEN
scr everything written, and while its
censors clashed with these in the for
eign office, the correspondents got the
worst of things.
AS the weeks passed the newspaper
men found it almost impossible to
write of the interesting things they
saw. Furthermore, the tendency Of the
bureau was TO send them to points on
the front where they saw little of i'm
rort2nce. Everything they did write
was censored. in each instance ac-
cording TO the individual ideas of the
man to whom the dispatch was re-
ferred- Correspondents OF whatever
nationality were not disposed to pro-
test at suppression Of military infor-
nation but they did insist that some
degree of fairness be applied to their
dispatches
The government eventuallV dis
covered that the bureau was not a
success under Major Deutelmoser's
subordinate. and also that its own
press bureau for German newspapers
was not operated as il should be. In
consequence the entire press system
was recognized.
There was created so-called mill
tary department of the foreign office
under Colonel Won Haerten. keen and
wide awake man, and Baron Pletten-
berg, both Of whom have an under
standing of foreign viewpoints They
were ruled by the conviction that neu-
trail correspondents themselves were
the best judges of what they desired.
Colonel Won Herten provided fac,U-
ties for obtaining the economic as ,yeU
as the military news insistentlv asked
for. and acted on suggestions made to
MN. He was able to send correspond
ents to active points on the front.
Nevertheless, he, or those above him
retained the same censors, who up to
the present have acted in an arb!-
trary manner in explicable to neu-
trails.