More Cable-rigging

New Zealand Tablet, 24 September 1908, Page 9

More Cable-rigging

According to 'Mr. Dooley,' the people of the, -unchanging East.* deserve the gold medal for the . artistic finish of ;their fibbing. 'We make our lies.be .machinery, >-says he; turn out theirs be hand"? They im.itst&;the best iv'our canned lies lodeceiva people that likes that but for-artists they have' lies that, appeals to a more\ refined taste.' In- regard to Vatican matters— and to Catholic matters generally— the cableman is usually (as we have frequently shown) an industrious but commonly crude and clumsy and (so to speak) untechnical sort ,of perverter of truth. His productions 5a thisK line, lack th» artistic finish of the article that, in the East, Appeals to a more refined ..taste./ There was, -for instance, a lack of . verisimilitude , in. the. story of a few days ago which credited the Pope wil* having declared that the ' prohibition ' of the •Eucharistic procession in London (which ■ was really not ' prohibited '), had ' shaken his belief in English liberty.' The procession had been expressly sanctioned by the Home authorities; but * Mr. Asquith,' says a previous cable message, ' sent Archbishop Bourne a confidential expression of opinion that the procession," which lv; deprecated, ought to be abandoned." The incident did, of course, * serve to emphasise the. fact that, Csl holies , do "not enjoy; the sartv; religious liberties in England as their fellow-subjects of otheicreeds — the Salvation Army, for instance. It ,. furthermore furnished ample room to the/ Daily Chronicle, the Daily Telegraph, The Times, and other .secular papers to. fjail ther Government for ..their weakness, : their irresolution, 'their' ' readiness to , make concessions v to a few extremists'- who clamor,' and "the tactless tardiness o r f . «heir intervention. ' But all' this," does 'not justify the invention of a story calculated; if not intended^ to create bitter feeling- in England against the Pcpc personally. * _'-„"-■* •The other; side of .Vatican news is usually' (for/ 1 lack of a live Catholic news agency)* left to chase the 'flashing cablegram, as best -it_ may, in the , hold" of a fourteen-knot mail steamer.

In the present instance, 'however, -^Reuter's Rome correspondent ' got on the- truck of. the -cable-rigger within- the- space of three days. -And this -is- what ;- he. reports : ' Reuter's Rome spondent -states that the" Vatican denies -that any resentment is felt- against "the British Government' owing To * the prohibition A>' •carryi.ig.'-the-'Host iti the "procession ' The Pope and' other dignitaries quite> understand the cause of »h£*prohibHion, Vt ahd "express" great satisfaction- with"- the liberty granted to 'the Congress. They consider that should' be' a lesson to the* Jacobin's - of all countries.' '■•■■• •" ■ ' . - < , "■ .