The Lyttelton Times. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 17, 1880.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LIII, Issue 5946, 17 March 1880, Page 4

The Lyttelton Times. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 17, 1880.

The telegram from Bombay-which we publish this morning is not exactly a surprise. Under ordinary circumstances, it would be a surprise to learn that though, as far as the cable news was concerned, every thingwas quiet in Afghanistan, the Afghan. troops .under Mahomed Khan have been closing round the British position in such force that a third campaign is considered inevitable. But the circumstances are not ordinary. The special correspondents of the great English papers,, who have been for years past", received without difficulty an the foreign- armies of even despotic Powers, are practically refused permission to exercise their calling by the Generals of constitutional England. The matter has been thoroughly ventilated in a late number of the Nineteenth Century -by ; the celebrated Archibald Forbes, in a manly, characteristic article containing the reason why he did not proceed to the army of) General ; Roberts, to; add to the distinction he had so fully achieved in France, Bulgaria, and the Zulu'country. As Mr Forbes says, ,the trade of special correspondent was 'created in the Crimean War by Dr Russell, whose graphic pen and bold shrewd independent spirit did signal public service at the time. Since then every war has had its correspondents pressing forward with the troops' to every point of danger, describing battles, sieges, the behaviour of the men, the arrangements of the. officers,--racing against each other to get their news to their employers, suffering hardships of every kind, and sometimes meeting death in the execution of their duty. These gentlemen never had carte blanche from the various commanders with whom they served to do as they pleased. For obvious reasons certain restrictions were imposed, within which they were free to do as they pleased. In these days of telegraphs, intelligence must not be conveyed from an army for publication before, a .certain time has elapsed, or else it would prove useful to the enemy. In practice the length of that rime is found pretty accurately, and the regulations for the conduct.of correspondents are fixed accordingly. For; instance, as Mr Forbes points 'out, the Russians in ■ Bulgaria, during the last war, placed all the telegraph stations within a certain radius under surveillance. Correspondents were allowed to make use of them for their despatches,, on condition of submittingto official censorship, and on this 'con-' dition they might, 1 if we -remember right, also have taken advantage of the military telegraph with - the army,' if convenient to the military'service. But outside the radius there was no restriction. &.s long as a correspondent chose to send his budget to an outside .telegraph station, he might, write whatever he chose,' descriptions of events, forecast of operations, criticism of arrangements': Nobody thought of interfering with him, This was the system in the army of despotic Russia. > But constitutional England, the nation that created the special correspondent, and enjoyed the benefit of his labours more than any other in Europe, is not content with the restrictions deemed sufficient by foreign commanders. Be.re seoon d Afghan campaign a circular was sent to the newspapers from the. department of . the Government censor of the Press—an official who it may surprise many to learn flourishes under British rule—imposing conditions upon the service of correspondents which l were- simply prohibitory. ; Even T aa .^concession,-for during the first campaign 1 only , military officers were allowed to act as correspondents.

When the new order, waa made known, it was at once felt that tto correspondent who valued his reputotidh as an honourable writer and independent obsemr could accept the conditions;, It is tin* necessary to. go through; the 'list here. We will content ourselves with, drawing attention to that one which prescribes that every message .must be submitted to the official censor, an officer of’ the head' quarters staff, who may refuse permission to forward it, or may excise what he pleases from it, or add what suits him to its contents, and forward it as the production of the correspondent whose name is signed at the foot. There was at first ridicule in the Indian,Press, for what was considered a stupid hoax, and then a storm of indignation for the unwammtableinterferenco with journalistic privilege. So great was the consequent public outcry . that the censor came forward to ■ explain. “ That bewildering personage/', says Mr Forbes, “ shambled into ‘ deprecatory publicity,” giving to the world the copy of an order from the war faffice, by which the blame was shifted to : the shoulders of the' Home authorities,: But whoever is to blame, the fact remains that independent correspondents are shut out: from the -Afghan campaign. It is quite unnecessary to discuss'the reasons for a policy which has no fear of the ehemy to guide it, seeing, that, .the Afghans have no access to telegraph lines at all, for the only lines are those in charge of the army. The- public of tbo Empire has only to deal with the fact that news from Afghanistan is not plentiful at an interesting time and to account for it. , iff'thel system adopted is just what ought have jbeen expected." The, nfewiiisvaU officialj and there is not much of it. As in the days 'of bulletihs~the days in which it was possible for Napoleon to inform; the bulk of the'French nation that; the battle of ’ Trafalgar’ resulted in, the signal/: defeat of the British fleet with the loss of _ its famous : Admiral—we hear chiefly of the enemy on great occasions whentUey havecome on in masses, and been mown down in thousands fey the well-served artillery, the ;cqbl infahtry practice, and the .ferffliait charges of our nofele soldiers. Occasionally ,we hear of what they are doing, and though it is always nothing, peaks of intelligence ;stand out;ofe the official gloom which enable one to trace the chain of events. Sometimes a panic rumour running through the,. lines strays, on to the telegraph wire, escapes the censor, and... is. flashed to all the corners of the empire. Of late we have not enjoyed an example of this kind, for there has not been since the ' battle of Sherpur much active service,; and without active servioq there can be no panics. :

The last news, a long while ago, was to the effect that the negotiations with Mahomed Khan for an accommodation had fallen through. Since then hot a word of the movements of that leader, who had concentrated at Ghuznee and was about to be attacked by two divisions from Oandahar and Cabul.: It was evident that another campaign was at hand, hut officialdom prevented; any .acknowledgment of the fact or any comments. The Suez mail news shows that at the time, so far from marching against l anybody, General Roberts was busy strengthening his defence at Sherpur. Reinforcements from Bombay were under orders for Gandahar, the railway to that place was being pushed on with all the vigour compatible with the rigour of the season. The cable news of March 5 -announced a complete revolt—as it is facetiously called —of the lately defeated Eohistanees, and a general gathering of the tribes for another attack on the British entrenchments at Cabul. In the isame message, casuffi mention ;s made'of the flight of the Native Governor of the Eohistanee district, who had been appointed by General Roberts, from which it may be observed that while the Government of Indfe is talking of retiring from the country altogether, the General of the army of invasion is appointing Governors of Provinces, and the people who refuse to accept these rulers are described as “ rebels.” ‘ The philanthropic Government has also discovered that a religions strife is to be apprehended between the Hindoos and Mussulmans of the country, in which the former will probably be massacred under circumstances of great barbarity. It seems to be necessary to take the side of the weak and the oppressed, as we always do in whatever part of the world we may be called upon, whether in Zululand, Abyssinia or, Afghanistan. But we are verging on criticism, which is not our object. Our present purpose is to review the Afghan intelligence of the. past few weeks, accounting,: for its meagreness. Those who have followed us will not be surprised at; the^ news published this morning of the near outbreak of hostiUties at Cabul for the third time. The fact that a third Afghan campaign has opened shows how correct was tae Opinion we expressed when Cabul was taken for the, first time, that the troubles in Afghanistan were then only beginning.