Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1917-02-20
impossible, for Thirty Months,
to Give Facts to PreSSi Ev-
erything CoIored to Suit
TeutoniC interests,
BERLIN Is CARELESS
OF NEUTRAL OPINION

Inv .opnlaa JousnAL SPECIAL L'Assp wre4

Inv noRNiHd JoushAL SPECIAL lsAssn "lRal
Bcrue, Feb. 10 (From a staff Cor
respondent of the Associated Press)'
According to statements made to
the correspondent before ms depar-
ture from Berlin, with former Ambas-
sadUr Gerard, by public men IN ter
many, the German government did
not awake until long after the begin
ming of the war to the desirability OF
making u favorable impression on
public opinion in neutral countries,
or, at least, having it's side of the case
given a hearing in the neutral press
An outlay of untold hundreds of thou
sands of marks has since been made
with the employment of considerable
staffs of officers and men and with
constantly changing systems, in the
effort to achieve the desired ends.
Censorship Is Severe.
Correspondents afomr neutral cnnn-
tries have experienced constant diff
Guilty since the beginning of the war
in attempting to report facts in an un-
biased manner In the THIRTEEN
month of the war, Germany applied
thc same newspaper methods to
American, Dutch, scandinavian an"
Spanish newspaper men as in the
first months. The censorship has
been the main source of trouble
largely because il has been working
at cross purposes with the very Off
cials who have had it in their power
to adjust the difficulties.
Men Didn't Understand.
Shortly after the outbreak of the
war, the foreign office mohllized con-
suls who, supposedly, were familiar
with foreign languages and lhstaiieo
them as censors, In reality, few OF
them are well vcrsed in any language
cxcept German. None of them has
any conception of newspaper work or
any military OF political knowledge
which gives csperiul qualification TOT
the task. The correspondents speed
ily came into conflict with the censors
and the government attempted TO
remedy the trouble. However its et-
forts consisted Of opening up add
tional channels Of news, which the
censors stopped,
Effort hy Foreign Off,cc.
The foreign office created the So
called central bureau for foreign
service which flooded neutral Coun-
tries with photoEraphs and with lit
orature written from the German
standpoint merely translated INTO
Dutch, Swedish or Rumanan.
The constantly increasing number
of correspondents in Germany, all
seeking an opportunity to sec some
thing of the war and to obtain news
led TO the establishment of what was
known as the neutral war press bu-
reau. Theoretically, this bureau was
headed by Major Deutelmoser, man
well qualified for the position, but he
was so occupied with other things that
he relegated this work to subordl-
nate.
Correspondents Suffer.
This bureau existed from October.
1915. until last summer Under It's
auspices correspondents Travelled to
various fronts. submitting all dis
patches to 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 CEN
sor everything written, and while its
censors clashed with those 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
importance. Everything they did
write was censored, in each instance,
according to the individual ideas of
the man to whom the dispatch was
referred. Correspondents. of what
ever nationality, were not disposed to
protest at suppression of military in
formation but they did insist that
some degree of fairness be applied to
their dispatchcs
The government eventually discov-
cred that the bureau was not sue
cess under Major Deutelmoser's sub
ordinate, and also that its own press
bureau for German newspapers was
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