Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1917-02-20
GERMANY FAILS
AS PRESS AGENT,
CENS0RS BLAMED
Government Spends Great Sum
of Money to Have Side Of
Case Given in Press of
Neutral World.
TRIES PLAN AFTER PLAN
Correspondents Are Unable to
Send Unbiased Reports to
Their Papers.
GET THE WORST OF THINGS
(From Stan Correspondent, Associated
Press.)


Berne, Feb l9.-According to
statements made to the correspond.
cnt 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 I'M
preston on public opinion in neutral
countries, or at least of having its
side Of the case given hearing in
the neutral press.
An outlay of untold hundreds of
thousands of marks has since been
made with the employment of not
inconsiderable staffs OF officers and
men and with constantly changing
systems, in all effort to achieve the
desired ends.
correspondents from neutral coun-
tries have experienced constant diff
fcuty since the beginning of the war
III attempting to report facts in an un-
biased manner. In the thirtieth month
OF the war, Germany applied the same
newspaper methods to American,
Dutch, Scandinavian and Spanish
newspaper men as in the first
months.
Censorship the Trouble.
The censorship has been the main
source of trouble, largely because it
has been working at cross purposes
with the very officials who have had
it III their power to adjust the dif-
hculties.
Shortly after the outbreak of the
war the foreign office modified con-
suls1 who supposedly were familiar
with foreign languages and installed
them as censors. In reality few of
them are well versed in any lam
guage except German. None of them
has any conception of newspaper
work or sny military or political
knowledge, which gives especial quail
itcstion for the task The correspond.
ents speedily came into conflict with
the censors and the government at
tempted to remedyAhe trouble. How
ever, its efforts consisted of OPEN
ing up additional channels of news
which the censors stopped.
Neutral Press Bureau.
The foreign Office created the So
called Central bureau for foreign
service, which flooded neutral coun-
tries with photographs and with
literature written from the German
standpoint, merely translated into
Dutch. Swedish or Roumanian.
The constantly increasing num-
bcr OF correspondents in Germany,
all seeking an opportunity to see
something of the war and to obtain
news, lead to the establishment of
what was known as the neutral war
press bureau. Theoretically. this bur-
eau was headed by Major Deutel-
moser, man we'll qualified for the
position, but he was so occupied with
other things that he relegated this
work to subordinate.
This bureau existed from October,
l9l5, 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. 1t sought
to- extend its jurisdiction so as to
censor everything written and while
its censors clashed with those in the
foreign Office, the correspondents got
the worst Of things.
System Reorganized.
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
importance. Everything they did write
was censored in e,ch inst,n.o a...xl