The press SATURDAY, MARCH 9, 1918. The Harmless Necessary English."

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16156, 9 March 1918, Page 8

The press SATURDAY, MARCH 9, 1918. The Harmless Necessary English."

In his graphic description of the operations that culminated,in the occupation of Jericho, Mr Massey, tho official correspondent with tho Palestine force, made special mention of the London infantry. Tho same troops have, as we showed the other day, been mentioned ' in some of Mr Massey's previous despatches. Tho reference to tho work of the Londoners is the moro gratifying because of the official reticence regarding the identity of English regiments concerncd in the operations of tho campaign, a reticence which Sir lan Hamilton criticised most vigorously, and which has just, lately been the subject of halfserious banter by two able writers, one a Scot, Captain Beith, better known as "lan Huy," and the other an Australian, Mr Prank Fox, at one time on the editorial sta£E of the "Bulletin." Both point out plainly and amusingly, in effect, that the English troops, as such, are never, or very seldom, given credit for what they do; if they are mentioned at all they are lumped under the generic title of "British," which, of course, includes men from V Birmingham or Newfoundland, Caithness or Otago. "Lan Hay's" remarks on this subject «re contained in a Ettle book, "The ** Oppressed English," obviously Britten- in the first place for American readers. The writer points out that " whenever anything particularly nnpleasant or unpopular has to u be done—such as holding up" neu- . " tral mails or establishing'a "black list' " of/netArnl firms trading with the « "enemy"—the odium almost invari- , ably "falls on England, "never upon "Fiance,' and only occasionally upon "Great Britain." It is against "EngY "land" that^German^^n^onf^^nc^

venomous attacks, her most malevolent wishes. On the other hand, when there is any credit going round, say, for the capture of a hitherto impregnable rieige on the Western front —to whom (asks lan Hay) is that credit assigned? Well, it depends. If the Canadians took the ridgo, Canada gets the credit; and tho world's Press, including the Press of London and England generally, pay due tribute to the invincible valour of the men from the Dominions. Or, if a Scottish or Irish regiment took tho ridge, the official report from Genera] Headquarters make appreciative reference io the fact. But, how often do we sec tho phrase. 'Ihe ridge was stormed, under heavy fire, bv an .English regiment' ? Practically never! A victory gained l>y Knglish boys from Ueyon or Yorkshire appears as a British victory, pure and simple. Making for a little humorous exaggeration, that is practically true, and it is greatly to "lan Hay's" credit that Scot, though he is, he recognises the wrong that is thus done to the Knglisli. Mr 7'rank I'd:;, i:i an article in the London '-.SpectaTor." under the herulwhich we 1 tavo quoted above, develops the same theme on somewhat different lines. Ho confidently expects, he says, that some day a witty French correspondent will record, for tho benefit of Paris, "how, on going to the ••battlefield to see the heroic deeds of " t!;e Australians, Canadians, Irish, " Newfoundlanders, New Zealandors, "Scottish, South Africans, and Welsh, " in the British Army, lie cnceountered " unexpectedly another tribe of fight- " cr;-\ the Knglisli, hitherto unknown "and unrecorded." Mr Fox finds the reason for scant notice that English troops receive in what he calls the "philosophy of publicity." It is h e argues, tho unusual that newspapors must seek to record. It is not their business to write history, but to provide day by day some of the raw materials of history. "A newspaper that •'sought to give a considered and woll- " balanced rccord of a day's ovents " would take a year in going to press, " and would then bo suitable for the "library rather than the breakfast '• table." If this wore the place and

occasion l'or a disquisition on how newspapers should chronic'io the news, ;t would b? easy enough to show that this is only partly true. It is sufficient to sny that a newspaper should, and many newspapers do, try to prosent, as far as possible, a fair and well-balanced record of the day. But the public want more than that. ! They seek the unusual and exciting, and the emotional. Hcnco it was that when the official restrictions on the publication of war news from the "Western front became less rigorous than at the outset, "contemporary English " newspaper records give the casual " reader the idea that the British Army " was almost wholly made up of Indian "troops, or at least that the Indian " troops -were doing most of tho work.'' They were the unusual feature of the Army. In time their place was taken by Territorial troops, particularly the London Scottish, then by the Canadians, who in turn were replaced in the limelight by the Anzacs. "Now," says Mr Fox, "at different times one group or " another of the great Imperial Army "comes into the field of tlio snapshot " camera with which the journalist ro- " cords the events of the day. But the "mass of the Army, which is English, "rarely gets special attention because "it is the mass, and its 'news func"tion' is to provide tho background "for some group or other." Mr Fox admits that the High Command mayhave good reasons for not disclosing, in official reports of operations, the English r.ogiments that took part in them, on the ground that to do so would be furnishing the enemy with useful information, but the civilian will be unable to see why the Germans should he allowed to know that, say, the New Zealanders tcok a certain position, and dangerous to state that tho Yorkshires or the Devonshires helped them. And even if the latter is, for some reason, undesirable, why should not the fact be mentioned that "English," as opposed to "British," troops, shared the credit of tho success? The English soldier does not complain—he reserves his grousing for such matters as a monotonous supply of one kind of jam. But, as Mr Fox romarks, the outside observer. the neutral, may be dangerously misled by the absence of any mention of what is being done by the English regiments. German agents have on several occasions tried to foment trouble betwesn the British and French by alleging that Great Britain was keeping her own men at home, and letting her Allies and the men from her colonics bear the brunt of the fighting. ' So that the claim that the deeds of the "harmless, "necessary English," should not be overlooked in official and correspondents' despatches rests on something else besides sentimental grounds, strong though these are.