REPORTING THE WAR IN AN OFFICE

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2765, 8 May 1916, Page 6

REPORTING THE WAR IN AN OFFICE

SCISSORS, PASTE AND INK AT THE PRESS BUREAU

TOLD BY A CLKAMNG-HOUSE PRESS AGENT [The . most perplexing tiling about this war, particularly in tho first eight months or so of the struggle, lias been the war news, and the vagaries of tho censorship. The Press of this country, and of the rest of tho world, in fact, for some months- after the outbreak of tho war, was flooded with news itoms which were afterwards shown to be out-and-out fabrications or sheer piffle. In the American 'Outlook" Mr. Frank B. Flser, of tho London office of the Associated Press—which was supplying war nows for some 900 American newspapers—tells of his troubles with the Press Bureau, and incidentally clears up some standing mysteries of the war news service. The article is well worth reading by students of tho war.]

Of military strategy I know little or nothing, and I .havo never seen a battle, yet for a period of more than fourteen months, eight hours a day, Sundays included, 1 sat at a desk in London as member of a news association staff trying to report the great War for some nine hundred American newspapers. From a daily newspaper standpoint, and especially in so far as the neutral Press is concerned, this war has been chronicled from tho desk rather than from the battle-front. Micro have been good stories—great stories— from all the fronts (I myself spent a week in the trenches at tho British front in Flanders), but tho .daily march of events, the pinnacles of fact,' correlated, interpreted, have been lecorded by men in shirt-sleeves and eye-shades in some obscure office:

When I walked into the office, one of the greatest struggles in history was going on just across the Channel;- but everybody was as cool as could be—sad almost, it seemed to me. As I learned later, tho depression which comos when you aro working under a censorship had already set in'. "Kicks" wero comingfrom our New York office almost hourly. Where.was Lewis, who had gone into Belgium with Cobb, M'Cutchcon, and othersP Now York; wanted to know; and why couldn't we> confirm the rumours that the Crown Prince of Germany had been assassinated in Berlin? and "Opposition says Paris evacuated;" and "Please impress British authorities with necessity intelligent /'ensorshin at once. ■ Much your copy unintelligible;" and so. forth.

This was on tho afternoon of September 3. 1914, when the Germans. were still batterin.pt their way towards Paris. On that day I learned two things about reporting a war. The first was: Don't hesitate to file : with the Censor matter you think will be killed. It may be passed. The second was: File rumours of potential importance, no matter how absurd they aro, and credit tho source. They may bo true. . • Fake war News. Crediting the source,of war news has been adopted by conservative journals and news-gathering agencies in their desire to report all phases'of tho war without assuming responsibility for stories that may or may not bo true. Tho system necessarily drags into dispatches'an ungainly skeleton of credit lines, but is imperative if you. want to play safe: This war has been largely a war of fake stories and misinformation. Not deliberate fakes on the part of American correspondents, but deliberate fakes on the part of many writers in the neutral Continental Press, and misinformation of the kind that surrounds every great event. There has necessarily .been more of it during this war because it is the greatest event that has ever happened in this world.

Slowly we learned to catalogue the fakes, and after a time we came to know thorn.-as old ..friends/ There were tho gun foundations of concrete piepared m France by the Germans in tho guise of factory foundations long before tho war Wo sent stories about these at. first,' and-then, we were sorry, for later the same foundations were discovered in Poland. Then there was a- certain'correspondent in Copenhagen—tho .human addiiig-machine we called him—whoso specialty was German casualty totals. Although he kept them in suspiciously round numbers, he was for a time convincing. Then it occurred to us that, i inasmuch, as no one in England outside the War Office could more than approximate the British losses at a given time, the figures of our Scandinavian statistician .were uncanny, to. say. the least .and our faith in him waned. .' Holland harboured—and still harbours—the specialists in computing how many troops Germany transfers from east to.west and vice .versa. These figures were always available after either the Allied or the Teuton forces had gained a notable success. If Germany lost ground in the west, she began immediately depleting her effectives along certain sectors of her eastern front, flinging reinforcements therefrom westward over that famous system of strate-1 gic railway. If she scored in The west or in the east, jsho began as promptly to withdraw men and metal from the field of victory, invariably ■ leaving, so tho writers in Holland said, rid men and boys to hold the new position, which had been strongly consolidated. These figures also after a time lost caste, as I. have, uo doubt that similar compilations purporting to affect, the Allies and supplied at a time when they miglit be true have lost caste in Germany.

The Crown Prince rumour, I think, had. been printed before I left New. York, in August; but it was not easily killed, and it was sent' from Loudon many times during the early fall . of 1914, variously dated Geneva, Athens, Borne, The Hague, Stockholm. Each version was vouched for by some agency or newspaper or by some ostensibly roliahle courier just out of Germany, leaving the correspondents no alternative but to send it along to be road by the American pcopk for what it was worth. I mention this by way of explaining why so many dispatches of this character were cabled during tho first six or eight months of the war. Not a few of them arc still being cabled ; but the desk men abroad have developed a sort of sixth sense by the exercise of whichthey aro becoming more and more discriminating. • Yet fho eternally harassing feature of selection is that so manv of these rumours aro based on truths or half-truths.

I dare say that at this writing no man in Europe, outside tho circle of the Grnuan royal' family or physicians attending tho royal family, is entitled with veracity to add one sentfneo to the official bulletins concerning the German Kmneror's recent indisnositinn. Not. withstanding this, special dispatches from Paris and from other sources oufsido Germany have described his maladv in detail and havo told what onerntiorj, his phvsicians purposed performing. " Now this is p.ijnably guesswork, but timely and ruess work, creating newspaper matorial that no correspondent can overlook with immunity, t havo no Gorman poners at hand, but I venture to say that the Minn alarmist accounts were published in Berlin" and elsewhere in tlio German. Empire when it became known there

that King George of England had been badly injured by a fall from his horse. News of Our Enemies. To writers in neutral States fringing thu war ;;oue the temptation to lake or half fake has betn almost irresistible. Bear in mind that for news of conditions and events in Germany, Austria, Turkey, and Bulgaria the newpaper readers of England,, France, Russia, and other countries of the Entente alii-, ance must depend either upon tho indirect service of neutral correspondents within Germany, Austria, Turkey, or Bulgaria, or upon the produce of writers of whatever nationality at some base in a State adjacent to Germany or her allies. Obviously, an English writer, uninterned, cannot now remain in Germany, nor a German writer in England. Therefore most of the accurate matter concerning Germany and allied nations as printed in England, France, Italy, and Russia to-day is prepared by American correspondents for American journals and Pross Associations, and is either cabled back after publication in this country or given out in Paris or London for simultaneous publication hero and abroad. Plainly these American writers working within, tho borders of \Germany or of her allies are not going to send out, provided they expect to" remain there—and, moreover, tho Censor would prevent it—anti-German news. And in this class come food riots, the prevalence of disease, crop failures—in fact, "economic distress of any kind; staggering casualty lists, gloomy pictures of illness' in ths royal family, Cabinet crises, and tho like. Yet these are just the things about which the people of England, France, Italy, and Russia want to read. Inversely, the people of Germany want to read the same things about their enemies; hence tho German Press garners and prints an rumours and near facts of an anti-Entente character as supplied by , writers'in the samo neutral States surrounding her. Germany would draw on similar material from the United States except for tho fact that England-con-trols tho cable situation. This desire to read how your enemy is suffering, coupled with the will to believe that what one would like to bo true is true has created the immense field afforded by the war for the propagation of matter of this sort. That Greece, Switzerland, Holland, and the Scandinavian -countries have been the hotbeds of it is due solelv to. their geographical position, v I "know a good many newspaper communities in' this country that would be serious competitors were they so situated.

Britain the Etlitor-In-Chiof. However—and this is'the .crux of the matter- so far as the United States is concerned—the nnti-Entente material, reaching Germany from whatever source, seldom, if over, finds its way to this country by cable, for the reason that from a cable standpoint Germany is isolated. To cable America tho American correspondents in Berlin have to iile by way of England, and there, at the hands of the British Censor and properly so, according to the ethics of censorship laid dowD in this war, anything he considers inimical to the' Entente cause is stricken out. By virtue of this cable control England has become the Editor-in-Chief of the belligerents. She edits not only her own war copy, but, with trifling omissions, the copy of her enemies, and on occasions the copy of her Allies. Matter passed by the Censor in Petrograd for transmission via England, to America was often rccensored by the British before it was delivered to our office for forwarding, and ■at times dispatches passed in France and sent via England because, of delay on the French cablo got no farther than the British Press Bureau.

This: would indicate : .that the Allies are not always of one mind as to what constitutes news for neutral consumption. But I want to omphasiso that this article is in no way intended as a criticism of the British censorship, nor of the German, or the Russian, or tho French, _or the Turkish. Only the test of time will tell whether censorship as enforced.in this war was founded on a wise or fallacious policy. Incidentally, Germany, through restrictions drawn only this winter, has gone further than any other country in; tho matter of regulating tho neutral Press. • She has demanded .of all foreign correspondents a personal guarantee that all their dispatches,'by mail or cable, shall not br .changed or altered in. any way by the newspaper receiving thein, nor .shall there be placed, over them headlines which the Germans regard as misleading. Violation of this is punishable by the ; forfeiture of the correspondent's right to gather news in Germany. All foreign correspondents in Germany were required personally to subscribe to these regulations, but how they aro to live up to them is not clear to me. The fortunes of, war and the irony of fate compel Germany to look to her arch-enemy, England, as the outlet for news.- Direct cable communication between this country and Germany, it will be recalled, was severed by the, British only a few days after the.outbreak of hostilities. . Since that time all dispatches from Germany or her Allies, hr view of their geographical position, havo of necessity passed through ythe British Press Bureau, the one exception being a meagre budget of news that Berlin gets off daily by wireless to i Sayville, Long Island. England may thus keep, and does keep, a completo record of every 'dispatch sent from Germany to this country—records of unquestionable vahio both from a military and diplomatic standpoint. She has, moreover, aside from such brief bulletins as Berlin may send by_ wireless, complete control of the official- communiques of all her cremies. While these communiques havo at no time, to my knowledge, been supprosed in their entirety, whole sentences, sometimes whole sectionß, havo: been deleted on the ground. of being cither palpable mis-statements or as containing information likely to prejudice tho Allied cause.

The First Zeppelin' Raid. When the "Zeps" came for their first big raid, about eleven o'clock at night, only our night editor and an assistant and tho cable operator and a copy boy were in the office. .Yet that staff was ample for the emergency. - Throughout the town,,in homes and hotels, other members of the staff were scattered, but few even took the trouble to call tho offico on .the telephone. They knew only too well that they would bo of no use.

I, for one, stood in front of my hr.use and watched the Zeppelin with a professional* anguish that burns within mo yet. ' I never so wanted to write a story ,in my life. I cast ?nd recast the opening sentcneps/-' I sent "adds" and corrections, and inserts. ' I pictured myself at the end of a leased wire, dictating a running story to a good operator, baseball 'world's series fashion, breaking in now and then with such a bullotin as, "At .eleven fifteen the Zeppelin seemed to hang almost over tho Bank of England. Kiros were breaking out near Cheapside."

My story'was never written. A bomb fell within sixty yards of tho olfice, driving out the night editor aid his assistant, and the. offico boy rid the cable operator; but what wo rent to New York that night was tho min-eo-graph official statement, nothing more. I was fortuanto enough to have • a good vipw of the Zeppelin, and I sin going to set down here, a little of what I wanted so much to write that v.ight. But first I want to disclose .:i bit of news —and I do not believe it has been printed -cithor in England or America: the entire raid was witnessed by Sir John French, then Commander-in-Chief of the British forces in France and Belgium. Temporarily in London, presumably for a war confcrcnco, ho stood on tho balcony of his home in Lancaster Gate and smoked cigarettes

during the bombardment. I have thia from no less authority than the Field Marshal's butler. To this day file London papers have printed nothing descriptive of chat raid —barring the brief oincial account and guarded editorial comment based there?"~Jjr of the raid that• soon ■followed it. Iho idea is to puzzle the Germans vioncernnig the results of raids, so that on succeeding visits the raiders may not profit by past mistakes. Whether this theory is sound and compatible with the allegations that the United Kin«dom is over-run lvith German spies 1 do not know. The official version of the raid re erred to contained just fiftv words. Mibhcal reporting, that: Here'was the biggest thing that had happened to London since the start of the war. and even the Northcliflu; press had to dismiss it in three sentences. I have sinca tried to picture the Now York papers in such a predi:ament. I -wonder if such, n feat of journalistic discipline could bu accomplished in America;

. The British Press Bureau. Journalistic discipline briugs me bacK to the censorship—that is to say, the Official Press Bureau. This Bureau, aa outgrowth of the war, and now quartered just off.Whitehall near the Admiralty, may be described briefly as an agency of the British Government charged w;ith the duty of determining so far as possible what the- newspapers, not only of tho United Kingdom, but of the whole world, shall or shall.not print about the war. For convenience,' the Bureau is also the medium through which the Government, 'announces to the public news of naval and military operations, casualties, etc. Contrary to' popular belief, the Bureau has no power to whip the Press into obedience, from time to time it issues confidential warnings, directing newspapers and coma, pendents how such and such a piece of uews shall be treated; but the enforcement of these instructions lies with the courts and the military authorities, who may prosecute offenders under the Defence of the .Realm Act. >.The' submission of copy by tho British. Press is therefore voluntary; but those who pub* lish without submission do so at their own risk. At lirst glance this wou'd appear to inflict undue hardship on the provincial Press, involving the sendirg' of matter for censorship from a distance, a .procedure almost prohibitory for a daily newspaper. Theoretically this is the case, hut the situation ii ameliorated by the fact that what thessi newspapers print consists almost en. tirely of official communiques and dispatches to tho great London papers, matter automatically censored upon receipt in London.

Censors at Work. Keeping check on-the dispatches of foreign correspondents is.done through tho simple expedient of shunting through she Press Bureau "all press rabies to, from, or through London." Lpon this-tremendous mass some forty men, mostly retired Army, and Navy officers, work day and ■ night .in eighthour shifts. If these subordinate censors aro unable to decide whether an article should bo' passed or suppressed, the article is submitted to higher authorities. This at times involves a delay that to the American correspondents at first soemod appalling. Copy is doloted literally, and not by a process of rewriting. Sentences aro either painted out with ink, blocked out with heavy pencil, ,or cut out bodily with small scissors. I havo soon many cablegrams from cur Berlin correspondent, going also, as I pointed out before, into tho enemy's hands, thj&t had been so scissored as to can drawn-work. Edited to taste, these cablegrams are stamped "Passed for publication," and may be forwarded to America, provided they reach tho cabia office with -ho alteration whatsoever. There is a consor on duty at the cabin office to seo that there are no iuterlincations on passed matter. Now, while jio honourable correspondent would attempt to write between tho lines or otherwise change copy that bora the Censor's stamp, it often happens that copy as edited by tho Censor is incomplete in text, and> sometimes misleading.. To nieet such a situation I once took a chance. ■ •

As received on' our desk from the Press Bureau a dispatch from the Continent read just tho opposite of what I knew tho writer intended, and I realised- that in making changes the Con. sor had Unintentionally created this orror. ■ Ho had used both scis-sors and ink. For me to re-rdit tho copy with ink or pencil differing from-the Censor's I know would moan detection, and I had visions of deportation, perhaps a gaol sentence. To send tho copy book with a request for recensorshin' would involve several hours' delay, and the dispatch-was an important cm?. I read it carefully, and : saw that \\\i elimination of four words would clear up tho ambiguity. ; Well, thought I, I can visct the scissors just as artistically as tho and nobody Will be tho Wiser. I did. The four words came out and ithe 1 dispatch got'away on time. My conscience was clear, for I. knew I ..had'made the dispatch read as it should havo read. Incorrect statements of a certain char, actor, .-however,,'if believed by theenemy, are helpful to a nation at war. and on this theory none of the- belligerents objects to the circulation of re;, ports which have enough, of the ring o veracity to keep opponents guessing

How Carl Lody Died. Car] Lody was the first German spj to be executed in London. Like tna | others that havo followed him, he w.u shot in tho Tower. Latterly, spies shos have been designated in the brief ofiV cial announcements as A, £!, C, etc. j' hut in Lody's case they used his name, I_ state this because it is pertinent to tlie circumstances through which, by chance, I got a good story on how he died. It was my day off, and, accompanied by Baedeker, ■ I went to the Tower of London. j(ain '• was falling through fog, and generally it was one of those gloomy London days that in reality arc just as depressing as tic lion writers s.ij they are. The Tower is not a cheerful place, but I wandered around considerably, and finally stood in a courtyard gasing at a spot where Lady/Jane Grey and Anne Boleyn and others hao had their heads cut off.

Ail oldbeef-cater, gay in his regalia, came and stood beside me. "That's tlie place the block stood," he said, by way of voluntary information. I smiled my appreciation and handed him a sixpence. Then, by way of being pleasant, I said: "I guess it's been a long time sine* any one was exeruted in the Tower." "Not so very long," said my friend. "We had one here yesterday."

I was startled; and ho added, quick, ly, "It was Lody, the spy." Now, we knew that Lody had been tried by court-martial, but I, for cue, had not pictured for him death amidst such historic surroundings. I gave the old beef-eater a shilling, and, leading me into a doorway, he told mo all about how Lody had died. Ho had been'shot at dawn, after the custom of court-martial executions, in another courtyard, fifty yards away. And he had died game. He had smoked a cigarette up to the last, and he had asked that he .bo allowed to faco the firing squad with eyes unbound. Whether. this request had been granted my informant was unable to say. When I got back to the office that night I found this notice from the Press Bureau on the spindle: "The Tress are authorised to state that spy Lody (sic) was found guilty by court-maitial and sentenced to death. Sentence was duly confirmed at tho Tower of London."