THE CENSORS IN SOUTH AFRICA.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6901, 15 September 1900, Page 6

THE CENSORS IN SOUTH AFRICA.

SOME OF THEIR METHODS.. - ■' HOW WAR CORRESPONDENTS ARE -.... 7 - HAMPERED. "MESSAGES "POLE-AXED." HUNTS FQR LICENSES. -„ .' VARIETIES OF CENSORS. - XHE LAZY AND THE OFFICIOUS. .! THE CHIEF CENSOR. • {'. <Bj • WID^CAMP&ELL.) .-^ j/ - A 1 lirge amount of' hostile criticism has 'been, levelled . against conduct of, the Transvaal campaign, but?' intone department at least the British cannot be '•accused of laxity or unpreparedness. The work " of the Press Censor has been thorougn-going. from start to finish. Indeed, the present war may _ fairly claim to have developed the censorship of Press messages into a fine art, but the result has been satisfactory only to the military authorities. Editors, correspondents, and the public have all combined in execrating tho ruthless application -of the censor's pruning knife, which was wielded without any attempt at discrimination by the officers who were entrusted with the power of deciding what the nation was to know of the fortunes of its arms against the Boers. In theory the duties of the censor are simple enough. . He has only to prevent the publication of news that may benefit. the enemy by affording information ci impending inovpments. The ordinary run of newspapers and obn-espondents are quite prepared td. submit' to this restriction, which they recogriiso.isi necessary for the safety of their own troops, although, as the readiness of the Boers freqiie-ntty pr&ved, it does not necessarily "keep the other • side in total darkness about their opponents' intentions. But even if the enemy is able to astonish you by the quality of his Intelligence Department, there is no need to help him by proclaiming your plans from the housetops. So the correspondents would have gladly kept silence abcufc the future if they had been a,Uqwed &' little liberty in dealing with the past! But even that was denied them, and frequently the British public was kept for days in ignorance of what was common knowledge among the people of tho Transvaal and the Free State, and perhaps further afield in the world. In the early stages of the war the process of suppression was supposed to be carried out under the orders of Sir Redvers Buller. When Lord Roberts assumed command, he relaxed the restrictions by which correspondents were hampered. "in spite of his assertion that they are the curse o| a well-ordered campaign, he behaved very affably towards them, even going the length, according to Julian Ralph, of asking them to let him call them comrades, since they shared the hardships of the campaign. He promised them a free hand in dealing with what had actually happened, and they began to breathe a little freely. But under the old regime, censors had acquired a love for pole-axing" messages, and they did not shake off the habit very easily. The censor at his best (or worst) is seen in the following example of his work quoted by Mr F. A. Mackenzie in " Harper's Magazine " The correspondent writes : " Heavy Boer attack ; pns ram shell fire on positions. Severe losses both yesterday and to-day." The message reaches the foreign editor, in London thus: Heavy rain yesterday and to-day." . me principle upon which the censor seemed to act was to cut out the bulk of the message, leaving an unimportant word, such as tne or . an " nere and ifo&Te, from which some unfortunate Sub-editor had to manufacture an intelligible piece oi -news. The toys of some 1 of the officials who were : burdened with the responsibility of censorine messages were extremely funny. They had to review not merely Press despatches, bub every telegram that was handed in «t a station for transmission. At pne little place, iaSS veterinar y had been installed as camp commandant and censor, and he held a few other offices' besides. He seemSnSlSy* f hat he had necessar % to exeffe' DuTtt g t r -° m i! Ve 7 t6l T arn that was put into his hands, aai | he & d it Th!s freak c f his was especially hard on the family affection of the Dutch A fanner would come in with a telegram", assuring ihis wife in some distant part-that he was quite well. He invariabfy ended his message with the words, "Wind reopportunity. "You Dutchman seem S;™ X ™T abou^ our regards," he would Well knock them out, anyhow,'' and he drove his pen through the offensive phrase, wW £ r T g , 6 poor Dut chman to send wiiab he looked on as a terribly fririd and unaffectionate telegram to his relative/ On SL,°% r d> s ? me of the analler % among the censors did not take much trouble over their duties. I remember a Canadian colonel whKv used feo tell you to "shove your letters mtihe post office," without putting his initial? on the envelope. Later on I found to my dismay, that they would not pass Cape Town in this condition, so there were four of us, two Canadians, an Australian, and myself, who lo?t the fruit of our labours. Another censor, a youno- lieutenant in the Seaforth Highlanders, wanted to put me off in the same way at Norval's Ponb, but I had discovered the value of initials by then. I hauled out my rules, and showed him it was part of his work to initial correspondents' letters, so he! said, I All right. Give it here. I'll sign any- ' thing that is'nt a cheque." ! . . But these were censors who were not imbued with a proper sense of the importance of their profession. The real ihard and i fast ; critics of telegrams were Major Bajjot, a* Cape Town, and Lord Stanley, the chief" censor, who , always accompanied headquarters. Of the two, the major was the subsidiary luminary. He was a very pleasant officer tp.,get .on with, but his methods impressed the outrider with a fault that has frequently been pointed out in the British military' system. Officers in Continental armies are specially trained to fill staff positions; but with us, a man is* turned loose in a staff appointment apparently without any preparation for it, and often without any special aptitude. A good many who managed to pull the strings, and get sent out to Africa, were, so to speak, pigeonholed in this manner to keep them out of the way at the front, and others who were nob conspicuously successful in the field were disposed of in the same way. The result was a perpetual tension on the patience and nerves of those who had to come in contact with some of these derelicts. As a rule, they were total strangers to business methods, and had a most lordly contempt for the value of other people's time. The curse of the "superior officer," too, was spread nil <vver South Africa, much to

the discomfort of everybody who did not happen to be somewhere near headquarters. When I landed in Cape Town, headquarters were in the neighbourhood of the Modder River, and the miles of wire between there and the base were an effectual bar to the moderately speedy accomplishment of any design you might happen to be 'harbouring. My first idea was to get a correspondent's license. The assistant editor of the " Cape Times" ■took me to Major Bagot's office, up a huge flight of stairs in the Post Office, and having shown me the place, said it was no use for him to wait. .He had had previous experience of that office. I waited, in company with several others, for nearly an hour, when we ihad the pleasure of seeing tne censor go out for lunch: A notice on the door stated that the censor would be in his office from 11 a.m. till noon, to see applicants for licenses. Eleven next morning saw us back, but the notice liad been changed in the interval. The censor ihad been visible that morning from nine to ten. Back "we came 1 at nine next morning, and after an hour's wait, jthe major turned up with another officer, who took up half-an-hour of his time, no doubt discussing " the situation." At last my turn came to go in to see him. I had been warned that licenses were now very difficult to obtain and so I found it " I can't give you a license," said the censor, "but I'll telegraph to Lord Stanley if you lite." I thought he ought, to know best about the matter of telegraphing, font I said semething albout it being "very kind if hs would." So he telegraphed, and' told me to come back next day. When I returned he had got no roply, and 4he process -was repeated fof three days running. The Major then suggested that I should enlist in an ambulance company. "They r-vrant -recruits," he said, "and you're a sturdy ' young fellow ; just the sort they'd take. ' I said nothing would give me greater pleasure, but that wasn't exactly the end I had in view when I came to South Africa. " Oh, you'll -have plenty of time to write," he said. -I didn't argue the point, but told him I'd prefer to go in the capacity of a correspondent. Finally, after daily peregrinations, .during a whole week, up and down these tiresome stairs, I get the glad tidings that I was to be granted a license. When I got it, it only applied to -the Cape Colony, but as the troops I wished to accompany were to be engaged for at least six weeks in the colony, I thought sufficient for the day was the ticket th-ereof. Oneof the conditions of the license was that you had to report yourself \o the oensor as soon as you joined a column ; bub ths three otheT . correspondents and myself who accojnpanied the Carnarvon : Field Force under Sir Charles Parsans, -were- at first unable to discover such an official connected with it. But after the first day, tre had a beautiful variety of them, every day bringing t> change, until we used to amuse ourselves by issuing orders' ourselves. " Censor for the day, Colonel So-and-so; next for duty, Lieutenant What's-his-name." 'I think every officer, from the Canadian colonel to the " horse leech," by -which irreverent title we knew the veterinary surgeon,, tried his prentice hamd at mutilating messages. Fortunately their onslaughts did not 'extend to letters, f ot according to the rules, letters for places outside of South Africa wero given to the censor closed, merely to be initialled. I suppose this was intended as a check on the number of correspondents, but numbers of colonials, in direct violation of the regulations undtr which they

had been accepted for service, acted as representatives of papers, and not being obliged to chase round after censors, were frequently ' able to despatch their letters more quickly than boria fide correspondents.

After the Keuhaxdfc tour, I wanted t<; join Lord Ro'barts's column at Bloemifontein, and then I regretted that I had noi at first procured a license of Trider range than the one I possessed. To remedy matters, I telegraphed to Ca>pe Town, asking to have my licence extended, and to my joy when I reached the railway line, I received, a telegTarai at Victoria West from Major Bagot, saying that, "subject to the consent of the commandant," I might go to Bloemfontein, and see Lord Stanley himself about the matter. As there was a commandant at every station in the possession of the British, the communication was a- bit vague, but I determiiveid to go as far as I could in Cape Colony, and with Major Bagot's permission to proceed, I thought that it was only a matter of form to consult the commandant, 'but I was rudely disillusionised when I reached NorvaPs Pont. The comma-ndta-nt there was a little fussy major, who had lost an arm, but fortunately he left the most of the work to his subordinate, Lieutenant Daniells, of the Seaforth Highlanders, who had received a sound training in staff duties in the Soudan under LoTd Kitchener, and had been specially sent to the important station of Norval's Pont 'by the chief of staff. When I told Daniells my business, he said he was sorry be had to stop me, but he had ordets

from Lord Stanley to intercept all ooflW* pondents ercept those whose licenses wore : initialled However, he sent oj telegram to the Chief Censor asking permis- 1 siptn to let roe go on and a favourable reply, came back in four days. While I was wait-' ing about NorvaPs Pont I saw two of my' Mends, correspondents from Canada, come! up by train. They asked me what I was', doing there amid When I explained they -hid" themselves till the train was just ■. sfctft&njg, j and then boarding it got through to Uloem-' forteiji. When they arrivtd there without 1 authority, the commandant/at Norval's Pontr .•nns rung up with an angry comment go his negligence, and 'he vented: his wroth onj (he military police who had let my friends, pass. I was told it was lucky for me I had mot tried to get through in that way' as Hhe two Canadians wpuldi probably beback to Cape Towa^n'When I reached ■Bloemfontein, I found", iny.'itwo colleagues' Itrembling in a hotel,. 'aJJaidioifo go near the jCensor in case he slwitia'braer them back,, and they even wanted to do a' deal with ma' over their " outfit" as they called their carb, •and, gear, so certain were Uhey, that. they, would not be allowed to proceed. With, the calm of an easy conscience I interviewed Lord Stanley, and was surprised to be asked " who gave me leave to come." I produced! i his telegram to the Norval'e Pont command dant, and then ho said, "There* one Jtfew. Zealand correspondent out here already.! How many papers are there ii* New Zea- ! land?" I told Mm there were quite a lot, l and, anyhow " on© correspondent wasn't much for all the men we had sent." H'e't showed signs of softening' under this, so I told him of the patriotic fervour in New Zealand, how everybody wanted to uphold England, how the Maioris were raising a' troop, and a great deal more that I don't' remember. He appeared very interested iaj the colony, and telling me to sit down,' chatted away for half an hour, although he' seemed a bit annoyed when a gust of wjiwj came in at the door which I Qvad left open and blew 'ell has papers off the table. Sow-; ever : >'be .jirro,te out a,, ticket, for^me to<ac-i ciompainyv" the 'army, under Lord' Roberts.'*, "There," he ©aid, " that will take you anywhere you want to go, and if it doesn't tell me and I'll make a row." After* that I had no bother, •beyond finding him out aad d&s-; covering when he would stamp envelope*.' It frequently meant riding a long distance,' as' he kept a "good mtLny.Sin'les in rear of the advance guard, along with the head-! quarters staff. Be did most of hie efamping i about eight o'clock afc might by the light of a candle, which was encased in o glass, cover like an enlarged electric lamp. Allthe correspondents used to line up ctmd go 5 an a body from fcheir quarter of the camp; to his table, standing with their telogirams before him like a pock of school boys in j front of a master. Occasionally he wasj tracked all over the place, especially when a, town Oiad been captured. In Krotmsbad,! one enthusiastic correspondent ran ldm to. earth in a warm 'bath, but as a rule he de-i clkied to be seen except at a stated time.' which varied from day to day, amid whiohv was difficult to discover. To overcome thia ! difficulty, I took some empty addressed en- ' velopea to him in Kro-onstad, and suggested ■ that as he did not have to read jny copy, j and as I could only "put the envelopes to' the use denoted by the address, there could' be no objection to carrying them ready' stamped mtfli me. To this he assented, and; thus any labours were rendered still easier.] It was by considerate acts like these that. Lord Stanley gained tihe esteem of the whole! body of correspondents. He was always J ready to help them in any way that lay in] his power, and to render the restrictions onj their enterprise as little irksome as possible. \ Had the subordinate censors been as genial > in their manner, as fair in their dealings with the different journalist's, and as readyj to meet the reasonable wishes of correspon- ! dents as Lord Stanley showed' himself, the] work of the newspaper representatives] would have been a great deal pkasanter,< and more satisfactory, and there would have! been less friction between them and the'

military authorities.