WAGING WAR BY NEWSPAPER

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2747, 15 April 1916, Page 15

WAGING WAR BY NEWSPAPER

GERMAN METHODS IN AMERICA SHOULD BRITAIN COUNTER THE GAME? ("Daily Mail's" New York Correspondent.) '■ In a leader occupying two columns entitled "A Truly Bntisu Success," the New York "Tribune" paints but that "the situation in Washington is slowly resolving itself into German manipulation of the United States' foreign policy by two agencies—by the use of the American correspondents in Berlin and the use of other American correspondents in Washington. The Dernburg .fiasco (he was tho German Press agent who was expelled from the United States) taught the Germans their lesson. They ceased after his recall to make converts by usiug German methods and German machinery. They employed American machinery, and "it is impossible to resist admiration for tho fashion ir. which they have made the American Press serve their ends." Tile "Tribune" describes, as I have frequently done, the manner in whioh the Crown Prince, Chancellor, the Foreign Secretary, and others in high places in Germany have placed their own statements of theii\ own case steadily before the American publifc in each dispute as -it arose. ' "Contrast with this the British method. There are American correspondents in London who aro quite as trustworthy and competent as Mr. Wiegand or Mr. Actfcrman. Tbe British are theoretically as much concerned in getting their case beforo tho American people as are the iGermans, but_what happens? As we recall it, Mr. M'lvenna did' once mako a statement on tho financial question, • but does Mr. Asquith ever deign to talk to Americans through the lowly medium of an interview? Does Sir Edward Grey ever condescend to toll the Aniorican public in a direct talk what the British conception of the blockade is? Naturally not. "The American correspondents are left to wallow through Blue Books or White: Papers, or what not. They are left to drag from official papers and the reports' of Parliamentary debates and get passedby the Censor such dry facts as their industry may accumulate and their discreation put in satisfactory form. But -who" reads these in America ? Would it interest the British to know that the American newspapers have long . ago ceased to lo.ok for anything of real value from London and that tlio least proGerman newspapers in the country aro regretting that they cannot transfer their London bureaux to Berlin? "A Newspaper is a Newspaper." "If the German Chancellor is willing to talk to the American nowspaper it is news—it is good news.. It may not be cricket according to British conceptions of tho way the Chancellor and the like should behave, but it is news, it gets printed, and it has real "effect in the country. As for the items.. the British allow to reach America, tliey lack all interest to begin with, 'because 'no one stands for them,' as we say in jouralese. They ■ may have real v-aliie for the next generation of historians; but they have none for this generation of newspaper, readers. It is nonbusiness of ours if the British prefer to conduct their affairs in this fashion. No American will complain if the British Prime Minister or if Sir Edward - Grey feels it undignified to talk to American • correspondents or to the .German people through 'our newspapers.- That is a thoroughly British affair." |

But, the "Tribune" proceeds, the British are constantly complaining of lack t-ish are constantly complaining of lack of American appreciation of tho Allied cause—of the British purpose. ' Again and again, American public men and newspapers are scolded by British men and newspapers because of their failure to recognise what. 1 Great Britain has done in the war and-what she is doing. "These complaints, are unjust and unreasonable. It' is all. right for the-Bri-tish to ignore them.- They have no cause to complain about .the result." ■

■ The "Tribune" points, out how', effectively Count Bernstorflr has. ' made friends of the Washington correspondents and how he put-s himself .'at their disposal and answers their, questions whenever possible." The result is that "the German, side, pending a dispute with the United States, frequently gets into print before the American side. Count Bernstorff has, been astute enough to turn' American weapons against tno American Government, and not infrequently to embarrass that Government by the cleverness of what he .has put through the newspapers; Does anyone suppose 'it is equally possible to get tile British case hefore the public from the Washington Embassy? Could anyone imagine - that Sir Cecil Spring-Rice would use the-Ameircan Press as Count Bernstorff has done ? ' Of course not. A Contrast. !. "The, British Embassy at Washington is a tower of silence and the German Embassy a veritable headquarters for information. The newspapers _ that are most friendly to Great habitually .print only the pro-German "side because there is no possibility of getting the British standpoint. There is no one waiting at the telephone- cr actually busy on it to see that the British position is made clear—no one in Washington—no one in America—no ono in London." _ The "Tribune" closes by showing at length how tho Germans, by playing their game in conformity with American rules, "have made immeasurable progress in their effort to convince the American people of the justice of their cause. The mass of the American news-paper-reading public reads only of British defeats, but it knows all about the German successes from. German sources, even where there was no success. They are as familiar with some German public men as with certain domestic "movie" stars, but as to the British they understand -that some of them are somewhere in France.

"If the- main purpose of the British censorship is to . prevent neutral nations from getting anything but_ German explanations about the war its triumph is complete."