WAR NEWS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 28, 16 January 1912, Page 3

WAR NEWS.

WHAT NEWSPAPERS HAVE TO PAY FOR IT. ASTONISHING FIGURES. “Get it, at a reasonable cost if you can, but get it.” This practically constitutes the orders issued to its war correspondents by the enterprising London newspaper of to-day; for whether a AA'ar is taking place next door to our own country, or a couple of thousand of miles away., the, public expects a full account at breakfast time of the previous day’s battle. The consequence is that the modern newspaper must spare no expense to obtain Avar news, , , . 'Take thb'last big war—that between Russia and Japan—which broke out at the beginning of 1904 and lasted twenty months. It is estimated that newspapers were, spending during that time 1 £40,000 a week to secure news of the war. This money was expended on the salary of some 200 correspondents, their interpreters and servants, the upkeep of .at least 600 horses, the,.,maintenance of despatchrunners, aftejf the Rewarding,,of cable messages. ■; . Costly Cables. - The expense of getting Avar hoavs is so great that the smaller neAvspapers during recent years have, . m some cases, combined and shared the cost of sending out correspondents. The more important neAvspapers, hoA\ r ever, send out their oavu men and also have correspondents stationed at various places Avhore uoavs is most likely to be obtainable. In theTurco-Italian Avar for instance papers are receiving telegrams from “our own correspondent’ at such places as Tripoli, Malta, Djerba, Sfax, Constantinople, Rome, Tunis and many other places. During the Boer Avar the “Daily Telegraph” had no fcAvcr than seventeen Avar correspondents in South Africa, and the cost of cablegrames themselves Avas enough to raise Avrinkles on the broAV of the man of average Avealth. One message from Mr Bennet Burleigh, for instance, ran away Avith £lO5, and altogether the little bill incurred for these messages by the “Telegraph” alone Avas something like £50,000. That of Reuter’s Agency could not have been met by less than a cheque for £200,000. Telegraph Rates. It is the cost of transmitting the news which is the biggest item in the Avar-bill for a neAvspaper. During the course of the South African War the cable Press rate was Is t Avord, 'although it is noAV reduced to 9d, AA'hile in the Russo-Japanese War the rate varied from about Is 4d to nearly 2s per Avord. These are the special Press rates, but it often happened that Avheu the correspondent had some exclusive uoavs he paid lavo or three times these rates in order to secure precedence of Pross-rato messages. In the case of tho Tripoli War the cost of transmitting news is not so great, although from Tripoli itself there is no Press rate; but the full rate per Avord is only 7d, Avhile that from Malta is only 2d.

The upkeep of war correspondents at the seat of the campaign is a great expense. As a rule the remuneration is from between £25 to £lO per week per man, apart from his personal expenses, and even such sums do not exhaust the liabilities of newspapers when war breaks out. Many proprietors take out a special insurance on the lives of their representatives, and some of the more generous go to the extent of giving an undertaking to see to the future of those dependent upon them.