The British Press and the War.

Press, Volume LI, Issue 15452, 3 December 1915, Page 6

The British Press and the War.

Sir John Simon's vigorous and thoroughly well justified attack upon tho Nortlieliffe Press has had tho natural consequence of a general onslaught on other offending newspapers. Concerning tho "Daily Mail" thero is perhaps nothing more to ba added to what we have already said, but it is right that the peoplo of the Dominion should know that offences hardly less serious have been committed by newspapers bitterly hostile to the "Daily " Mail." The "Nation" "was mentioned in tho debate as having said that it would bo better to lose tho war than to lose the principle of voluntary service. That is in itself a wicked statement, and in circumstances which may any timo pass from tho stage of possibility into actuality it would bo a highly treasonable one. Should compulsory service become necessary, and should it meet with organised resistance, tho '"Nation" will bo amongst those responsible for tho resistance. For months past'this influential Radical weekly has devoted its energies to an attack upon the conscriptionisfc movement —an attack conducted with great ability, extreme violence, and a notable want of scruples and fairness. Day by day the "Westminster Gazette'' showed that it was possible to resist tho movement without giving any encouragement to violence or to prejudice, and without influencing anybody to withhold, in the ultimate end, his hearty and patriotic support of any measure deemed necessary by the National Government. Tho "Nation" has insisted, to In; sure, that all tho men required can bo obtained by voluntaryism, but the most careful perusal ol' its successive issues has left lis unable to lind a single occasion upon which, even indirectly, it has declared its willingness to assist in making conscription a success if voluntaryism fails. Conscription, it has repeatedly declared, will be "a triumph of Prus- " sian ideas." With an ordinary Social Democratic orator, such a phrase in such an application is a confession of intellectual poverty and of low mental stature—ior is not France a eonscriptionist country, as everybody knows r But tho "Nation"' is not written by fools —its articles are the line flower of intellectual Radicalism. Its use of the phrase quoted is the mark of insane and reckless, and therefore -unpatriotic and dangerous, prejudice. In a recent issue it declared bluntly that every Englishman has the right to refuse to serve his country—that, indeed, it is more than his right: it is his duty to exercise as he pleases his "liberty to "give or withhold his aid in Avar.'" "If •'our democracy, '■ it said, "should

•" ever surrender the right of tho individual to decide whether he shall back every warlike adventure of an *• Imperial policy with the sacrifice of his life, it would moan that we had " lost our most cherished traditions of " self-rcspoct r.n;l personal independonee. There is no infringement of "persona! liberty as extreme as this, "and to submit 10 it would lo to mako "'a .surrender of all that is most pre•'cious in citizenship." Just as the oiFenee of the "Daily

" Mail'-' has been tho tendency of its activities, so it is the tendency of such Radical journalism as that exemplified by tho "Nation" that is pernicious and indeed treasonable. In both cases the Government is faced with a difficulty: it is not difficult to punish a singlp concrete infraction of the law, but it is very difficult to draw up an cffecti% - o indictment against a tendency. In Germany neither the ''Daily Mail" nor tho Nation" would run looso for very long, but in Britain nobody wishes to see German methods employed. Tho Government has relied irx>n tho loyalty and the intelligence of the Press, and in the first part of the war its confidence !-eemed to be warranted. Today, however, the British Press is no longer worthy of that full trust. There are some papers—the '"Daily Tele'"graph'' on one side, for examplo, und the '•'Westminster Gazette" on the other —which are almost abovo criticism : but they are almost tho only London daily newspauers that it is possible to read without occasional uneasiness and a. regret bordering at times upon shame. When the war is over, we are afraid, it will be impossible to look back and say that tho Press of Great Britain was, as a whole, quite succcssful in upholding the traditions of British, journalism.