CENSORSHIP

Evening Post, Volume XCIV, Issue 48, 20 August 1917, Page 2

CENSORSHIP

LORD NORTHCLIFFE ON ITS BLUNDERS

POWER OF THE PRESS.

Lord Northcliffe, the British High Commissioner' to the United States, in an address to magazine editors and writers at a luncheon at New York in July, expressed the hope that the United States would not muddle the censorship as England did the lirst three years of the war. "America can and will do a tremendous part in this war, first, because she is fresh, and, second, because she undoubtedly will profit by the mistakes of the nations who have been fighting since August, 1914," said Lord Northcliffe. " What the war needs more than anything else is brains and speed.

" I trust that the United States will not make the censorship blunder that England made and which is just becoming an evil of the past. England was kept in the dark for nearly three years. The people were blinded by the fatuous optimism of soldiers and politicians, who, while efficient in peace, were incompetent in war. The people were not permitted to know the truth, and when" the truth finally emerged out of costly blunders and sacrifice they were loath to accept it. • '

" I hope that America may permit her newspaper and magazine writers to be absolutely frank about what is going on. It is as important for the nation to know the. worst as it is for the nation to know the best. For one thing—and we have found it out from actual experience—it is a great stimulus for the men fighting in the field to know that they are-being written about at home, and that the country they are fighting for knows precisely what they are doing. "Every man with a pen in hand and a printing press near by can do a patriotic service to his country by awakening his people, to the fact that this war is jtist beginning and that every ounce of energy, that every revolution of America's vast industrial machine, and, what is equally important, every gallon of gasoline, will be needed to bring the war to a successful end. It is only by an absolute mobilisation of man-power and machine-power that this war can be won. Industries that at this moment seem remote from mobilisation for the war will sooner or later be called upon to do~ their part. In Europe, for oxample, one of the largest corset. factories is now turning out very delicate pieces of machinery needed, in the construction of airplanes.

AIRPLANE ONE HOPE OF VICTORY

"The war, which has proved the efficacy of motor transport to an almost incredible degree, will make a tremendous drain upon the automobile industry in your country. For one thing, the. great bulk of automobile output will have to be concentrated on trucks. In the second place the automobile factories will inevitably be commandeered for the manufacture of airplane parts and airplane construction generally. In the airplane lies one great hope of Allied victory. The w s ar has taught that the airplane engine of spring may be almost useless for actual fighting next autumn-'ko rapid are the developments produced by the fierce competition of war. "When America has got her full stride in the war, as nurely she will get it, it will be found that there will be a tremendous demand for chauffeurs. England to-day has nearly 100,000 motor trucks in France and is constantly sending more. Everyone of these trucks must be manned by a trained driver. If skilled chauffeurs can.be sent to operate your trucks it will be possible to release an ec(ual number of men. for the fighting lines. It will mean the end of joy riding. England stopped this favourite outdoor sport a- good while ago, and I am sure that when America wakes up to the tremendous realisation of what this war means she will do likewise.

LOOKS FOR FEDERATION AFTER WAR. . "I have a strong conviction that with peace will come a close federation of the nations who are now fighting'the "great fight, for freedom. You have only to look at the ■■ great spectacle of what I [ might call the united nations of Great i Britain, to-day to see the effect that the war has upon the co-ordination of peoples and nations of widely conflicting temperaments and national structures. You see democratic Australia, a nearly Socialistic New Zealand, a. vast country like India with its feudal prinpelets and other rulers, a free Canada, and what is notliing less -than the Republic of South Africa, all pouring their blood and treasure out. upon the battlefields of France, linked by common feeling of Empire and sustained by a common hope of liberation from the militarism that sought to dominate the world. A close federation of the natio : ns now fighting the good' fight will be the only insurance against the autocracy that made this war possible and the horrors jrtiat the armies of the autocrat perpetrated on innocent non-combatauts. The world must be made free" for democracy."