The Washington herald., 1918-07-27
WAR CORRESPONDENT HAS
DUTIES IN PERIOUS PATHS
Intimate View of Reporters Work in France
Given in Letter to Chief Not In
tended for Print

New York, July as-The experience
of a war correspondent. who risks his
life every second he is on duty, Is
feature of war wholly overlooked or
underestimate by those who keep in
touch with the happenings in the the
ater of conflict.
The war correspondent is out to get
the news and he gets 1t regardless
of consequences. But his path is not
rosy one. This fact is strikingly shown
in a recent letter from Henry e.
Wales, one of the International News
Service stan correspondents, to the
manager of the service. The letter
follows:
My Dear Chief: Just a few lines to
tell you the situation here as 1t ex-
lists, although 1t may be largely
changed ere this reaches you.
On May q or 2s the French after
noon communique announced German
attacks developing in Flanders against
Ypres and between scissors and
Rheims: so, having my credentials
fxed for the American chateau In the
British area. / went up there I'M
mediately. They never received the
telegram / was coming, so 1 finally
got there via motor trucks, freight
trains and ambulances and then found
the German thrust in Flanders had
been merely n feint and that the main
blow was on the Aisne.
waiting for Attacks.
beat it back to Paris with two
| other. correspondents to see II we
| could do anything from Paris with
| the Scissors attack. and then we
] returned in a couple Of days to the
! American chateau up at the British
| front, as / was expecting creden-
| tials to the British correspondents
| chateau to come through any time.
| 1 remained there a few days until
| the German drive toward Chateau
| Thierry got more serious and
| American troops were mentioned In
the line there and also when we re-
| ceived information up there which
/ cannot write you. but which war
| ranted our returning to the scene OF
activity Immediately.
/ got back to Paris late at night
and beat 1t out as near Chateau
| Thierry as I could get by train,
| motor-truck, ambulance and motor
! cycle sidecar next day. arrived
| Just after the Marines had made a
terrific attack, suffering heavy losses
and gaining certain valuable
| ground. I got the story and return
| ed to Paris via every known form
of locomotion, including bicycle,
except aeroplane and submarine.
! Story Turned Down.
When / tried to file my story
with the line about $50 Boches cap
I tured-the censor advised me moth
| ing doing. because he thought was
| accredited to the British only and
| could not work with the Americans.
| Four or FIVE hours later Bert Ford
came in with part of the story
not through any fault OF his, as he
had been covering other American
units in the Chateau Thierry sector
| which had not engaged in the fight.
the Syracuse Brigade among others
so I gave Ford my lead and my
copy, and he shot them through.
| Meantime, Parke arrived from
1 Neufchateau. and we, talked the
situation over and decided that, as
| Ford was worked pretty hard, /
| should stick there-the American
end on the British front being dead
| and Parke would return to Neuf-
chateau. Then a day or so later
| they ordered us out OF Paris and
installed our headquarters here,
| with a courier service to Paris,
twenty-five miles away, three times
q days a. m, 1 p. m. and $50 p.
| m. 1t was very tough luck being
taken of the end of the wire, but II
had to be.
Ford has gone to Neufchateau for
couple of days to get some things
and little rest. and he will see
/ Paris down there. Perhaps Parke
| will keep him there and will come
back here himself
Three American Fronts.
We are covering three American
| fronts from here. the Cantlgny one
being almost three hours auto ride
from here. There may be other Amer
| mean fronts come to life around here
any time-that will depend on what
| the Boche does.
| I am trying to get a statement
| over that I got from general of
the Marines that the United States
needs to wake up and give us a good
heavy gas like mustard gas-one that
will stick around for many hours,
from twelve to sixty hours, and put
men out Of action. as well as to send
US aeroplanes and artillery. instead
Of making VI borrow machines and