Evening star., 1923-08-12
BY SIR PHILIP GIBBS.


elsewhere. and what do they
matter. anyhow. in those years when
millions of men faced death daily and
passed through an adventure of life
beyond all power of ina gination of
civilized men? I will rather deal
with the subject of the press in war.
and with the peculiar difficulties and
work of the correspondents. espe-
cially in the early days.
For the first few months of the
war we had no status whatever.
indeed. to be quite plain. we were
outlaws. subject to immediate arrest
and often arrested) by any officer
French or British. who discovered
us in the war zone.
Kitchener refused to sanction the
scheme, which had been fully pre-
pared before the war for the appoint
ment of small body of war corre-
srondents whose honor and reputa-
tion were acknowledged. and gave
orders that any journalist found in
the field of war should be instantly
expelled and have his passport can
celed
The French were even more severe.
and sent out stern orders from their
general headquarters for the arrest
of any journalist found trespassing
in the zone of war.
For some time. however. it was
Impossible TO enforce these rules.
The German advance through Bel
gium and northern France was only
A day or two or an hour or two be-
hind the stampede OF vast popula
tions in fight from the enemy. The
roads were filled with these success
siye tides of refugees. The trains
were stormed by panic-stricken folk.
and even the troop trains found room
in the corridors and on the roofs for
swarms of civilians, men and women.
Dressed in civilian clothes. un-
shaved and unwashed, like any of
these people. how could a corre
Hpondent be distinguished or arrested?
Who was going TO bother about him?
Even the spy mania which seized
France very quickly and feverishly
did not create. for some time. a net
work of restriction close enough to
catch US.
travelled for weeks in the war
zone on a pass stamped by French
headquarters. permitting me to re-
ceive the daily communique from the
war office in Paris. / had dozens of
other passes and permits de sejour
from local authorities and police
which enabled me to travel with per-
feet facility. provided I was able to
bluff the military guards at the rail-
way stations, who were generally
satisfied with those punches of dirty
passes and official-looking stamps.
X r x !:
NNE great difficulty we had in
~ those days was to get our mes
sages back to our newspapers
Sometimes we intrusted them to any
chance acquaintance who was making
his way to England. Several times
we had to get back to the coast, in
those terrible refugee trains to bribe
some purser on cross-channel
steamer. When that became too dam
gerous-because it was STRICTLY for
hidden by the military and naval
authorities-we made the journey to
London. handed in our messages, and
hurried back again the same day to
France.
used with success, three times
running, the following method of
getting my "dispatches" to Fleet
street After the third time some
intuition told me to change the plan.
At that time. as all through the war,
a number of kings messengers
mostly men of high rank and repu
tation-traveled continually between
British general headquarters and the
war office with private documents
from the commander in chief Three
times did l accost one of these officers
"a different man each time-in an
easy and confidential manner.
Are you going back to Whitehall,
sir?"
Yes. What can I do for your
IT shall be much obliged if you
will put this letter in your bag, and
deliver it at the war office"
Certainly, my dear fellow"
My letter was addressed to the
Daily Chronicle, care of the war
office, and, much to the surprise of
my editor, was punctually delivered
by a war Office messenger. But my
intuition was right. After the third
time the editor of the Daily Chronicle
received word from the war office
that if Gibbs sent any more of his
articles by kings messenger they
would be destroyed.
The method of delivery became
easier afterward. because the news
papers organized series of their
own couriers between England and
France. and that system served un-
til the whole courier service was
rounded up and forbidden to set foot
in France again.
Looking back on my experiences
as an unauthorized correspondent in
that early part of the war, l must
confess now that was hardly justi-
fed in evading military law, and that
I might have been found guilty
Justly, of a serious crime against
the allied cause. BY some frightful
indiscretion (Which l did not COM
miD. l or any other of those cor
respondents might have endangered
the position of our troops, or the
French army, by giving information
useful to the enemy.
The main fault, however, lay with
the war office, and especially with
Lord Kitchener, whose imagination
did not realize that this war could
not be fought in the dark. as some
little affair with Indian hillmen on
the northwest frontier. The immense
anxiety of the nation, with its army
fighting behind the veil while the
fate of civilization hung in the bal
ance, could not and would not be
satisfied with the few lines of official
communicates which told nothing and
hid the truth.
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