DR. EMILE J. DILLON

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2600, 23 October 1915, Page 13

DR. EMILE J. DILLON

A BRILLIANT FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT. Dr. E. J. Dillon is something more than a journalist, he is a diplomat, a statesman, a confidant of statesmen, a friend of monarchs, and is familiar with the intricacies and intrigues of all the European Courts (writes 0. Henry" Rule in "T.P.'s Weekly"). His book, "A Scrap of Paper," in the "Daily Telegraph" series, is iquito the most informative piece of tho genesis of the war literature. It enables us to see that Dr. Dillon's knowledge of European affairs is so wide and so deep that ho will only be able to make it known posthumously. That in rfmch recent writing about war correspondents little has been said about the doctor is due to the fact that, if hardened to being in tight corners, ho has never got accustomed to the limelight.

Dr. Dillon left Dublin (where he was born 62 years ago) as a youth, and made his way to the Continent. European languages—all of t'lio living and most of tho dead —seem to have como trippingly from his tongue from his babyhood upwards. ' At the age of eight he was a student of Hebrew, and ho is probably the only' living journalist who has written loading articles in papers in England, Russia, France, and Germany. Ho has graduated at three European .universities, and has studied at seven. His homo has been, for many years, "somewhere on tho Continent," but chiefly at St. Petersburg (Petrograd), where he was the only private individual to receive an uncensored British newspaper. Ho married a Russian lady.

The doctor's entrance into journalism was in keeping with the precocity of his cliildhood. Ho had taken at Louvain (now the city of tragic memories) his Doctor of Oriental Languages degree, to go to St. Petersburg just about 1 the time tbe professors of Russia had placed _ before the public a history of Sanscrit and Zend, two languages with which young Dillon was more than ordinarily familiar. Dillon, then only 26, reviewed the book of the professors, and criticised it mercilessly. Tho university, pundits consequently raged and declined to give him the degree (Master of Oriental Languages) he was striving to obtain. . Nothing dauiitod, Dillon journeyed to Kharkoff, where ho obtained his well-merited distinction. It was in 1890 that Dr. Dillon began his connection with the "Daily Telegraph," and about tho same time caused particular attention to be paid to a series of exposing tho internal enmities of Russia, written by him under tho pseudonym "E. B. Lanin," in tlie "Fortnightly Review." He had previously contributed to tho "Pall Mall Gazette," the lirsfc British journal to take his writing, which was immediately marked in journalistic and literary circles for its faultless and scholarly stylo.

Brilliant journalistic feats and "scoops" are a commonplace of Dr. Dillon's life. Tho Dreyfus trial enabled him to turn .out, single-handed, some livo or six columns daily during its progress—a truly amazing journalistic feat. His findings of himself face to face with death, in his eagerness to keep in close touch with events, are too many to be named. One of his closest shaves was in 1910, in Oporto (Portugal), when Don Manuel was dethroned. A fierce crowd, mainly of peasants, saw him as ho_ was_ leaving a monastery. "Ho's a priest in disguise," they cried. Tlio doctor's shout, in Spanish, of "Long live the Republic" saved his life, when soms of the crowd had their fingers on the triggers of their levelled rifles.

In the great European crises of the last twenty years Dr. Dillon has played a prominent part in other capacities chan as a journalist, though he lias, of course, never forgotten to keep his fingers, through the medium of the Press, on the ptilso of the people. Ho knew Count Witte, whoso death was recently announced, probably bettor than lie was known by any other man. Hp was, through a series of clover interviews, the first writer to portray tlio character and outline the policy of tlio Russian statesman, whom lie considered to he 0110 of the two greatest men in TCuro'ne. When M. "Witto signed the Ttussian-Japaneso "Peace Treaty (1905) it was with Dr. Dillon's fountain pen, Vhich bad been lianded to linn for tlio purpose by Dr. Dillon himself. 11l like manner tlio "Telegraph" correspondent's pen was jised,,two or three years ago, to sign the Peace Treaty of Bucharest. "A Scrap of Paper" helps us to judge the importance of tho part Dr. Dillon played in the crisis in the Balkans in 1910. _ Count Aelirenthal, the then Austrian Minister, and M. Isvolski, tho then Russian Foreign Minister, were friends and confidants of the doctor.

In this present war campaign Dr. Dillon's pen has not been idle. Though his writing has not heon so prolific as that of some other correspondents, we have at least found in it tlio stamp of a full knowledge of the deeper moves on the Continental chess-hoard. "What lie has written has been out of an experience gained during a life lived amongst the Continental peoples. His presence now, where, through intrigues, a people is being sorely tried, is a guarantee that when all is over wo shall get an authoritative picture of what is yet veiled in seemingly impenetrable mystery..-