"CONVERTING" THE PRESS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 844, 16 June 1910, Page 4

"CONVERTING" THE PRESS.

Everybody knows that nothing has ever happened that did not happen previously in China, that wonderful museum o£ origins in art, science and politics. Few people, therefore, will he surprised, although they may he very interested, to learn that the press policy of tho AVabd Government has its Chinese parallel. The parallel, which will be found •in an article printed by the London Times of May 3 last from its Shanghai correspondent, is extremely curious and interesting. Some little time ago the Taotai of Shanghai was impeached for squandering public money in buying up Chinese newspapers with a view to stifling their criticism. The Viceroy of the Liang-Kiang provinces was ordered to investigate the charges against tho Taotai, and it is his memorial that the Times correspondent, .discusses. The Taotai's methods may be understood from tho following extract from a report which he made in April, 1908:

Tho newspapers of Shanghai bring destruction to the Government of tho day, raise agitation, undor tho outward protext of public indignation on the part of tho people of this country, act as secret abettors in the conspiracies of tho revolutionary parties. Their utterances are given easily and unsparingly and stimulate public motives for tho furtherance of private interest. And of all theso papers tho worst is tho "Universal Gazette." It is requested that funds be appropriated for tho purchase of this paper, and that some other trustworthy person be deputed to manage it.

Could a more perfect parallel to Sir Joseph Ward's references to The Dominion be imagined 1 -The Taotai, however, had a simpler and more effective means at hand than the manipulation of State advertisements. He was happier than his New Zealand disciple.in being able to use .the public funds to purchase the Gazette and other journals. He simply stole 160,000 taels from the Huangpu Conservancy Fund, and manipulated the other public funds to make good the deficits that promptly followed the "conversion" of the wicked papers. The Viceroy, says the Times correspondent, was anxious to exculpate the Taotai, and he backs him up with comments which Sir Joseph Ward and His friends will probably have no hesitation in regarding as extremely good and sound. These papers, ho said, "confuse the Government with evil writing," and all tho Taotai did was to "devise means of obtaining control of them with the object of resisting wild discussion." x The Times correspondent says that the journals thus silenced were the most respectable in ' Shanghai, and wore unsparing critics of officialism. Perhaps the most striking thing in the whole-of the Viceroy's memorial is the following passage: "In every country of the world the Government appropriates funds for the assistance of newspapers, in all cases with the object of protection. This is a matter of common occurrence." We can only suppose that his Excellency had been perusing a copy of the New Zealand Hansard for last session, and had concluded that tho House.had merely affirmed an undisputed principle of statesmanship when it decided by 3G votes to 18 that the public funds should be used for the rewarding of newspapers favourable to the Government and the penalising of hostile critics. The Viceroy has of course other authorities to which to appeal. His views and those of Sir Joseph Ward are the same on this point as those of the late President Kruger, who once declared in the Raad, as recorded in The Transvaal from Within, that "the reason why he did not subsidise some papers by giving them advertisements was that they did not defend the Government. It was the rule everywhere to give advertisements to papers which supported the Government." While the Government had only Mr. Kbuoeh at its hack, wo thought that its press policy could be subverted. But we are afraid that we cannot make any headway when the Viceroy and the Taotai range themselves beside Sir Joseph Ward and tho exPresident. They make too powerful a bench of opinion altogether.