"HUMAN" DISPATCHES

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3069, 3 May 1917, Page 4

"HUMAN" DISPATCHES

Apparently the British Admiralty has discovered, after nearly throe years of war, that tho official dispatch is a cold and soul-less document, convoying little, and inspiring nobody. Tho other day the public was thrilled 'by a wondorfully vivid description of the destroyer fight in tho English Ohannol. That story was an "official'' production, handed out by tho Press Bureau for publication, but no official could nave written it.' To-day wo publish an Admiralty dispatch telling the official story of the sinking of tho Ballar&t—an Australian transportin the Channel. Here again the. official formality of touch is conspicuously absent. Tho Admiralty has evidently realised that it owes something to the public, and something, also, to the actors in these stirring incidents of the war,'and apparently has deputed an cxpcrienccd descriptive writer to humanise its communications to tho world. With innumerable correspondents—somo of them highly capable men—on tho great battlofronts of the land campaigns, somo justice has been dono to the soldier, although a good deal of nonsensical rubbish has dropped from some pens. But tho sailor has been poorly served so far. There aro no correspondents with the grey sentinels of the sea. Could such a story havo been written about tho fight on tho Dogger Bank, or the great Battle of Jutland, as was written aFouB the destroyer fight a few days ago, what a magnificent and inspiring talo could have been told. Such a tale will bo told some day, no doubt, but the time when tho telling could have been of most value will havo passed. If tho public has: at times grown apathetic about the war tho blame has been duo in a very large moasure to the uninspiring, unstimulafcing character of the official dispatches. One wonders whether Me. Lloyd George, with his vivid sense of the dramatic, has had anything to do with this highly ereditablo departure from tho Admiralty's normal habit.