RUBBISHY WAR NEWS

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2810, 30 June 1916, Page 4

RUBBISHY WAR NEWS

The attention of the Prime Minister was drawn in the House of Representatives yesterday to the character of some of our cabled war news, particular reference being made to Mr. -Phillip Gibbs's description of the Anzac trench raids which was published yesterday morning. Most people will agree with the generally expressed contention that a good deal of the matter which is cabled to this country as war news is of a rubbishy nature, and that it is a waste of money to send it. The blame- for that lies with the individual abroad who selects the news for distribution. But while it is easy to condemn in general terms and find general support for such condemnation, yet when attempt is made to mention specific instances there is usually room for argument; and this is the caso in regard to the message covering Mr. Phillip Gibbs's dispatch. The member for Hutt says we do not want that sort of rubbish—the story of the Anzac raid. What reason lias Mr. Wilford for making such an assertion on behalf of tho public,

and is he, after all, right? Do not the people want something more than a chronicle of the big events of the war? There arc, of course, . peopje who stand aloof from the' multitude and visualise the war as a whole—to them the minor happenings, the daily routine, the individual exploits, tho things which indicate the atmosphcro in which our men live and fight and die; the things, in fact, which create in so large a measure the human interest in the war, are but trifles too insignificant to be worthy of their attention. But the great majority of the people, while anxious for the fullest information concerning tho progress of events or of, say, new development affecting the major issues at stake, aro also keenly interested in the personal doings and welfare of our own troops, and it is just such messaees as that of Mn. Phillip Gibbs that helps to fill this need. Of course, too much of that sort of thing would pall; it might oven prove harmful in giving us a false perspective as to the extent of our part in the war; but too often those who decry such attempts at laudation of our troops do so from a false sense of modesty, or a lack of human understanding and sympathy. It may sound very fine to say wc do not want these rubbishy messages which recount in what appears to be a somewhat fulsome fashion the exploits of small bodies of Anzacs engaged in nothing more important than trench raiding; yet there is not a fathor or mothor who has a son at tho front who is not intensely interested in the insight which such messages afford of the tasks in which their boy is engaged, and justifiably proud to learn of tho manner in which he and his mates are doing ;them. And wo venture to think that no young man, nor, for the matter of that, old man, whose heart is in the right place, can read of such incidents without a warming of the blood and a quickening of desire to share in the task which the men in tho fight-ing-lines are so gallantly performing. By all moans, let us have the 'fullest possible news of the big happenings and what they portend, but within reason the doings of our own 'troops_ and anything that indicates the spirit and temper in which our lads arc "carrying on" should be no less welcome. Wc could much netter dispense with most of the rubbishy speculations, the fanciful rumours, and the grotesque pretences of probing the secrets of the inner councils of our enemies with which we aro too often regaled.