MR SNOWDEN IN AMERICA

Horowhenua Chronicle, 25 January 1915, Page 3

MR SNOWDEN IN AMERICA

REPORTER'S "BLIND." Mr Philip Snowden, the British MP., who was recently in New Zealand, describes in the Christian: Commonwealth, a very unpleasant experience he had with an American newspaper. The incident occurred at Portland, Oregon, U.S.A., where a newspaper reporter asked Mr Snowden for his views on the war. The reporter who had caused him a good deal of trouble was a "youth who has not got past the stage of thinking that good reporting must necessarily be the stuff which will make shivers run down one's back."

"My prosaic discourse on European diplomacy," says Mr Snowdeai, "was evidently not the tiling lie wanted. My wife quite accidentally bought a- copy of the evening paper in the street on the afternoon of the day on which the interview had taken place, and something of the awful shock she experienced may bo imagined when I mention that in largo type on the front page appeared these words:— " 'Briton M.P. advises British soldiers to shoot their officers.' "Below this heading, in what purported to be a statement by me, were words to the effect that I would like to see the soldiers turn round and shoot their officers and bring the war to an end I was simply flabbergasted when I saw the rejjort. There was not, ~>i course the shadow of foundation for the statement. I had never said a word of the kind. The sentiments were utterly abhorrent to mo.

"We at once got into communication with the editor of the paper, and, after seeing the reporter, he admitted that lie had made a serious blunder. The heading and 1 statement were taken out of tlio report in subsequent editions, and, 011 an assurance from the editor that the false report would: not be circulated further, nor telegraphed to any press agency, I let the matter rest, as I was leaving Portland that evening, and .1 knew something of the difficulty of getting any legal redress in an American Court." Mr Snowden describes how that report was revived a fortnight later in a New York paper, in the form of a special telegram from Portland. He at once returned to Portland, 1200 miles distant, saw tho British Consul, and then wont to see the editor.

After a good deal of trouble, Mr Snowden got the reporter to goi with him to the British Consul, and there, adds Mr Snowden, "ho signed a sworn declaration that the statements attributed to me had never been made by nie, and that part of the interview was incorrect."

"When I appeared at tlio Consulate \vitli the reporter in custody," "Mr Snowden concludes, "the Consul had a mild, fit of surprise, and lie afterwards assured nie that I was the first man who had ever succeeded in: getting any satisfaction from an American newspaper. And 1 am inclined to agree with him after my experience.