The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1914. NEWS OF THE WAR.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 149, 18 November 1914, Page 4

The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1914. NEWS OF THE WAR.

It is botli strange and disappointing that (the reports of the great war now being furnished us are so very scant. Russell, the Times correspondent, sent home reports of the Crimean.- War so vivid that they made English renders seem almost eye witnesses of it, The descriptions of the great battles in the Franco-Prussian War written by the famous war correspondent of the Daily News, Archibald Forbes, were so masterly that they became literature, and at the same time so reliable that their accuracy was scarcely ever questioned. We get no approach to such accounts of the -present war, although the issues involved in it are far more vital to us than those of any other war in the world's history. At the outset of the great I struggle, when the leading London journals applied for permission to send out trustworthy correspondents to accompany the British tropps, they were told that the question of granting such permission must be decided by the military authorities at the front, and when the' application was made to them, the reply was that "for the present" no war correspondent could be allowed to accompany the .British troops and their allies in the field. Wjtli all due deference to the authorities by whom this restriction was originally imposed, we cannot help thinking it is high time it was somewhat relaxed. We have unbounded confidence both in the great British generals | by whom it is being conducted. We U have all loyal respect for their reluctance to allow the publication of any information which could possibly furnish the enemy with any such insight into our plan of campaign as might assist them to frustrate it. But now that our troops are in the thick of the fray we'think we have a right to considerably more information about how they are getting on than we are receiving. Russell himself, near the end of his life, said: "I assisted at the birth of the war correspondent, and now I am taking part in his Obsequies." But so far from the role of the war correspondent being played out, it seems to us more important and more necessary now than ever. A democracy like the British people is so accustomed to publicity that it will not long tolerate secrecy or even reticence unless it is sure that it'is imperatively demanded by the interests of the .Empire. Lord Roberts knew this when he paid his last journey to France. "France," he said in his last interview, which will find a place in our history, "with conscription, could afford to remain silent, but Britain wanted many more men, and if they failed 'to inform the 'Home people of the soldiers' bravo fights and gallant deeds, 'how were they going to -waken in .the' souls of the young men the high sentiment of emulation which would lead them to the recruiting officer? They don't know that every minute they are losing is of priceless value, and that delay is, perhaps, jeopardising future battles." In the weighty words of the Spectator, "there are reasons from the point of view of a democratic people why the presence of unofficial spectators should be allowed with an army so long as purely military interests' are safeguarded." The chief of these reasons is, of course, the fact that the despatches „ of our Generals are necessarily too la- i ■ ' conic to be luminous and inspiring. It i is a fine tradition which prompts them to practise a Spartan economy in the wording of these despatches. But that is the veTy reason why we want fuller, more detailed and more dramatic descriptions of the doings of our men at the front from the pens of reporters fettered by no such restraint. We do not want embroidery, we do not want embellishment. But we do want narratives sufficiently picturesque and vivid to enable us as nearly as possible to gee with our own eyes how our troops are standing the strain, the issues of which are so vital to those who tarry by the staff as they are to those who go forth to the field. It is not enough for us to know that the attacks of the Germans on our Allies are being steadily and persistently repulsed. We want to know how our soldiers are being sheltered and fed, how they are being • nursed and tended "when wounded in the hospital; above all, how they are keeping up their hearts. We know they ars

doing their duty manfully, and will go on doing it to the far end., But wa want to know something more than this.

We want to know whether they arc ' fighting with the glow of hope or only with grim determination of a dread that .sometimes borders hard on despair. This knowledge is especially necessary to us when we are given to understand that our forces are compelled for the piesent to maintain merely an attitude of defence. That is the hardest of all things to keep on doing day after day, week after week, month after month. To have to rest content with being part of a solid wall whose sole duty at present is to thrust back wave after wave of attack overwhelming superiority of numbers must tax to the ut- j most the courage of even the bravest of the brave in its wearisome monot-1 ony. It would make our pulses tingle

if we were sure that our men are not

simply keeping "the thin red line" unbroken, but they are doing it with the glow of the hope of eventual even if it is to be far distant victory. We know they will be brave and true. We should like to know also that they are cheery and optimistic, and it takes .something more than a dry prosaic despatch to tell us that it is just because of our pride in the army that we are anxious to know all about its spirit and outlook that can possibly be told to us. And it is not for merely sentimental reasons that we desire this fuller information. | Nothing but such information can pos- j sibly inspire an adequate response to j Lord Kitchener's call for more men. When we see that nothing but more men is needed to sweep the march of our army on towards Berlin, the men will flock to the rescue from every portion of the British Empire." The war must be carried on till the brutal tyranny of Germany is crushed by the thunder of our allies' guns against the walls of Berlin. The only way to get fresh recruits to carry our flag on to victory is the sight of signs that will show us that our armies are already moving on with a force which only needs continuous reinforcements to make us sure of reaching the goal by and by. The resources of the British Empire are far from being exhausted yet. The splendid services being rendered by the fervid enthusiasm of India is only an instalment of more to follow from Canada, Australia, Now Zealand, and all the lovers of liberty who are prepared to fight and die to make all Europe free. The way to keep up the enthusiasm of the whole. Empire is to feed the fire of those who tarry by the staff with pictures of the pluck and prowess of those at the front, which can only be furnished by war correspondents who make it their business to tell us all wo have a right to know. There is no danger of that permission to publish such information being abused by any of the war correspondents sent out by the great journals. They are sure to be men whose honor is equal to their ability. Our only claim for them is that thev should he trusted as implicitly as we trust our statesmen and generals. The British cause only requires to be better known to be supported. When we know more, more men will pour into the ranks and more inony to the funds. Patriotism is only a plant that comes into full bloom in the open. It always pays to trust the public.