Evening star., 1923-08-12

! They were not sure at first of our
mentality. or our honor. The old ira
| dition of distruSt between the army
| and the rest was very strong until
the new army came into being. with
! officers who had not passed through
! Sandhurst but through the larger
world. They were so nervous of US in
! those early days that they appointed
a staff of censors to live with US,
travel with US. Sleep with us, read our
dispatches. with a mass of rules for their
guidance. and examine our private cor
respondence to our wives. if need be
with acid tests, to discover any in
visible message we might try TO
smuggle through.
We had to suffer many humiliations
I in that way. but, fortunately, we had
sense Of humor and laughed at most
of them. Gradually also-very quick
ly, indeed-we made friends with
many generals and officers command
| ing divisions, brigades and battalions.
broke down their distrust, established
confidence.
The heavy hand of the censorship
fell with special weight upon US dur
ing the battle of Loos. Gen. Mac
donagh himself used the blue pencil
ruthlessly, and 1 had no less than
forty pages of manuscript de-
leted by his own hand from my
descriptive account. Again it seemed
to US that the guiding idea behind
the censorship was to conceal the
truth. not from the enemy but from
the nation, in defense of the British
L
dering. That was in September of
1915, and We became aware at that
time that. the man most hostile to
our work was not Sir. John French,
the commander-in-c -chief, but Sir Doug
las Haig. at that time in command Of
| the 1st Corps.
The tragic slaughter at Loos, its
reckless and useless waste Of life.
its abominable staff work and cer-
tain political intrigues at home, led
| to the recall of Sir John French and
the succession of Sir Douglas Haig
as COMMUNICATIVE chief.
| X X X -
TOR a time we believed that our
, 1 doom was sealed. knowing his
strong prejudice against us. and in
the FIRST interview we had with him
| he did not conceal his contempt for
our job. But with his new responsi,
| biltty he was bound to take notice of
the increasing demand from the
British government and people for
| more detailed accounts of British
actions and OF the daily routine of
| war. 1t became even an angry de-
| mand, and. Sir Douglas Haig yielded
| to its insistence. - '-'
The new chief of Intelligence, Gen.
+, Charteris, who succeeded Gen. Mac
donagh, devoted a. considerable
| amount Of time to our little unit,
and in many ways. with occasional
tightening Of the reigns, was broad
| minded in his interpretations Of the CEN
sorshfp regulations. .. -, ,-,.. .,.
1t may surprise many people to
know that we were not in the en-
pfoy, OF our own newspapers. The
| dispatches of the five men on. the
western front (apart from special
Canadian and Australian correspond
ents attached to their own @corps)
i were distributed by arrangement with
/ the war Office to all countries within
the empire, under the direction of
an Organization known. as the News
| paper Preprietors' Association, who
shared our expenses. ~ - 5E-
; Po:s. our mess between the two
! worlds came visitors from both 1t
was our special pleasure to give a
| liftcins one of our Vauxhalis;:to some
| young Officer Of the fighting lire and
bring; him to our little old chateau
| or one OF fsour billets behind the lines
and help him to forget the. filth and
| discomfort of our trenches and dug
outs by fa good dinner in "a good room.
They were grateful for that and we
had many friends in the infantry,