FUTILE DIPLOMACY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 162, 26 November 1912, Page 7

FUTILE DIPLOMACY.

LONDON AND THE WAR,

THE RUSH OF WRITERS,

London, October 11,

History ha 3 an abominable, habit of repeating itsself. The diplomatists in the chancellories of Great Britain and Europe declared that war in the Balkans was impossible. The correspondents of the papers who were stationed in the capitals of the countries concerned joined in the assertion that the peace would not be broken. And next morning Montenegro fired the first gun. It was the story of the Franco-Herman war over again, and before that of Napoleons' escape from Elba. The truth seems to be that Ambassadors and Cabinets and correspondents are not fortunate in what is known as intelligent anticipation. They have an exaggerated sense of the might and majesty of the Great Powers, they underestimate the racial hatreds which continually smoulder in the Balkan kingdoms, and there is little co-ordination between ths chancellories and the newspaper offices when it comes to a time of Continental crisis. The English papers are particularly well served by their correspondents, and are very badly treated by their Cabinets. The moment trouble threatens to occur they adopt a sphinx-like attitude, and decline to take any members of the fourth estate into their confidence. This does not mean that the big papers are wholly ignorant of what is transpiring; in point of fact, their principal proprietors probably know as much, and move, than Ministers. They are kept fully posted by the. latter, but it is a point of honor that this information shall not find its way into the columns of their papers. The proprietor, therefore, may be allwise and yet his paper may be all wrong.

DEVIOUS WAYS. The men who mould the fortunes oi Europe have, too, their own curious way of doing things. M. Sazonoff, the Russian Minister- of Foreign Affairs, came to London to talk about Persia with Sir Edward Grey, the Secretary for Foreign Affairs, 'and with King George. His arrival in London was heralded and recorded. The people who interviewed him each day were reported. Sir Edward Grey left for Balmoral',' where his Majesty was in residence. M. Sazonoff left for Balmoral, and Mr. Bonar 'Law, • the leader of the Opposition, suddenly appeared at Balmoral, At, and into, Balmoral they vanished. The only information regarding them was contained in the Court circular issued each evening. They had had the honor to dine with the King and the Queen. Five days passed with those interesting and informative announcements: M. Sazonoff returned to London. Sir Edward Grey returned to London by a different train. Mr. Bonar Law returned, to ., So much the great public learnt, and no more. Foreign Ambassa- : dors waited on M. Sazonoff in London. I M. Sazonoff lunched with foreign Ambas- | • sadors, had dinner with foreign Ambas-; | sadors, but sai<}np,thing and did nothing as far as' th'e~public knew. . M. -Sazonoff .departed for Paris; he arrived, in'. Paris, , lie talked with M. Poincare, French Minister of Foreign Affairs; - with President Fallieres; then, without any preliminary preparation of the public ■ mind/ Temps printed a long interview with M. Sazonoff. Thei'e' was prospect of- bother in the Balkans, but it would ..be nothing whatever. Was l 1 there'not the' Triple Entente, and the Triple Alliance ? , and the brotherhood' of man? and;'above all, the Hague Convention? ' Next morning M. Sazonoff ;• talked again;i "The Balkan States %vere ' just healthy children, whose vigorous health fo'iind expression in the playful'ness of the tiger",cub. The following morning the tiger-cub had grown into a full-sized beast. And the morning following that it was a-tiger with flaming eyes, crouched with claws showing, which j: M.'SazonbffM rjifttuj-ed for the people of , Europe. .;:Is it any ..wonder that the people iind tlie r press were equally misI led 1 ; .'■ ."■; - ■

, .■■ ■ ■ OFF;,TO; TIIIS FROXT. When the curtain rose on the tiger preparing to spring the papers could wait'riiy-'longciv St-. Petersburg, Berlin, Vienna, Paris -might be right, but' the odds were that'they were wrong. No newspaper' Iwoirthy of the name would ■take any: more risks. Correspondents were commissioned,- placed under contract with ■big) .salaries,..their lives were insured for large 1 amounts, fat letters of ! credit wore, placed .in their hands, and they were hustled" away to the front. Men who are only heard of amidst the alarums and .excursions of war appeared on the scene. The name of Bennett Burleigh,-most-renowned of war correspondents, appeared once more in the Daily Telegraph.- ; ; The Daily Chronicle commenced 'to 'print' messages from Mr. Martin Donohoe, an Australian who has forced his way' to the front by an uncanny news instinct. ~ Mr. Xevinson, who won recognition in Ladysmith and Tripoli 'and.: most adventurous of all, Miss Durham, who can be silent in about ten. different . languages. The Daily Mail, with its customary enterprise, despatched Mr. William Maxwell, who was shut up in Ladysmith, and who visited Australia . when King George opened 'the first. Federal Parliament. Mr. Charles Hands, who went through the Russo-Japanese war; Mr Xorregaarii, whose sanguinary description of the assaults of Port Arthur robbed people of their sleep; Mr. Valentine Williams, who witnessed the Portuguese revolution, and two other less known, but equally capable, correspondents. The big, illustrated papers engaged special artists and photographers and hastened them off. The news agencies sent a smiill army of pen and pencil men, and every paper simutaneously erupted Ayjt.lt''(stay-at-home" war experts, who blazon out into columns daily. The migration of this wonderful collection of trained and skilled war news gatherers could be traced into Paris, to Vienna, to the Austrian border, and then., like M. Sazonoffat Balmoral, they partially disappeared. Miserable little snips of messages, neutral-tinted and almost valueless, filtered through at long intervals from the frontiers. The censors had been at work, and the censors have no respect for the public appetite for vivid stories of battle, ?mmler and bloodv death.