Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1919-05-30
CABLES TOALL
BRITISH
CUTDURINC WAR
Soldiers Went to Offices and
Took Telegraph In
struments.

London, May 3o.-Cprrespondence
of the Associated Preston the eve
ming of the Sunday before the declar-
alton Of war British soldiers walked
into all the London newspaper ofaces
where there were telegraph wires
connected with the cable stations and
quietly cut off the telegraph instru-
lnents and took them away. Editors
and CORRESPONDENTS who hurried to
the cable offices to inquire what had
happened found all the offices guard
ed by .ientries with fixed bayonets.
and the men in khaki were forbidden
TO ak Thus. Unexpectedly came the
beginning of the British press CENSOR
ship.
The mobilization Of the naval re-
serves had started that afternoon. All
the streets n railways were filled
with sailors hurrying for their sta
from the shelves, and carrying their
canvas kit bags. This was the first
act of IA that Londoners witnessed,
and the news of it was the last uncen-
sored news of var preparations which
the cables transmitted abroad.
Now, almost as unexpectedly.
comes the happy bulletin that on the
last day of April the press bureau
puts UP its shutters and zoe out Of
business, and no more cheering an
~nouncement could greet the newspa-
per world. unless possibly that of a
drop in the price>of print paper. The
experience of an official muzzle and
a novel one for the British papers
and public, and no other people ex-
cept those of the United States could
have suffered it more unwillingly.
Most other European countries have
known press censorships in times of
war and peace, and some have had
secret censorShips which the public
knew nothing of.
The general verdict of the newspa-
pers, reviewing the past five years in
a spirit of forgiveness and peace
on earth. is that all things consid-
cred the censorship was not much
more unreasonable than must have
They say that h first few months
were the worst and that there has
been d progressive improvement since.
The e~xtenuatinR circumstances were
that h government had to organize
a very big and complicated machine
practically over night to do a work
that lac never been done before in
this country, and that was bound to
be irritating in an atmosphere where
freedom of speech had been held not
lower than the ten commandments.
The press bureau was complicated
because four different cooks-the war
office, the admiralty. the foreign Of
flee and the home ofice-each had a
spoon in the broth. Their work fell
under three heads. the %censoring OF
domestic news and special war arti-
cles for the British papers, of the tele-
grams which came from abroad for
these, and of an immense mass of
matter written in different languages
by correspondents for the Allied and
neutral countries.
The nominal head of the censorship
was the home secretary. but Lord
Kitchener was it's founder and for a
;nrg time an autocrat whose prohi-
billions were law, without any appeal
save to he British cabinet. For
months the cabinet was far too busy
with other matters to consider. the
working of what vas first regarded
az a very. miEor, department. Time
altered that pbint of view,
Before the end Dfthe war the press
departments of all governments be-
came very important and militant en-
terprises, SO that even in England
The newspapers express misgivings
whether they will not have a struggle
to return to~the I'D conditions of en-
tire freedom from official pilotage.
Kitchener. like Sherman and Wolse-
ley, regarded newspapers as danger
Gus. The old guard Of British war
correspondents whom Kipling photo
graphed in The Light That Failed"