IN THE PUBLIC EYE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11282, 9 January 1915, Page 6

IN THE PUBLIC EYE.

♦-_ —.... \ '-.'-. PROMIXEXT PEOPLE OF THE period. ■•■■■'•"■/.. ;; ;\ The New Year, honours list does not, appear to hive been a particularly) lengthy one. Perhaps the most interesting announcement'ls the institution, of a new military decoration, the Militnry Cross, to be bestowed in: recogtd- -'- tion of distingushed conduct'"and, to be-, > confined to officers under the rank- of; ■•■ Major. There was room for this decoration. The higher ranks commonly're-' ceive their recognition by the award';, of the Distinguished Service 'Order,, which is given only to officers as 'a reward for "individual instances 'of meritorious or; distinguished service"ini'" ," war," but only tl.iose are.,eligible who.have been mentioned in despatches Tor , • distinguished conduct- in the field'oi»'- i before"--the enemy, it may be fr awarde'ct' '■ for bravery under fire, hut it ii not;'inthe. -same ■■ .category: as.,. the _ .Victoria. : Cross. Obviously in the present- '■s?&■ the list of companions of the Dis- ' tinguished Service Order" would hava--. - ; to Ixj'expanded.to'extraordinary,dimen-.-. 1 ;. sions if every instance of distingufsb,ed .;.-, conduct by an officer had to" .be re-., warded by the bestowal of the order. : The new medal corresponds to the Con- , ■spieuous Service: Cross- grafited-.'tq.'.sr.ar-.::. ~ rant officers or subordinate «£.«?«•&.,,«?£ the -R6yal' v Navy,-'. Individual. •**s&,/# .-,- gallantry in- tho field by sioned officers.-and men • ■.ot,,;:hip. : .''ii&r' _,,. jestv's forces are rewarded. hy We' \ grant of the Distinguished Cor duet Medal, and tlie new. Military, Cross. thus brings the practice of the. Army' . into line with that of th.e-.Nayy, Tho ' Victoria Cross, of course, i?...awarded' ■:■. '.'for some signal act of valour, 6 1 'di8r : . votion to one's county,, the presence of ~the,, enemy...." Tits. V: otlier awards, .named, are ipx ;.dj.suh■niished conduct in ' war, "but .not , necessarily "in the presence of .the /••■ enemy."

The " Eve-witness " at the • British Headquarters in France;-whose reports concerning the operations of the British ' army make their appearance at irregular intervals, occupies rather- an.anomalous position. The post'ho holds ap-: pears to have been created to meet the demand for news from the front, the regular newspaper correspondents llav-. ing been told, politely but firmly, that their presence was not desired .hear the' firing line, 'but it has never be&nV. made clear whether the -appoilitment was a civil or a military one. Both ' the military authorities and" the oiviigovernment have been reported as v&pudiating responsibility, and the most probable guess is that Sir JohrL French, anxious to comply with the urgent.requests that reached him for news of the Army, detailed an officer to act as a kind of Greek chorus to the war tragedv. There is a good deal to be said both for a.nd.against this method of sending news home, «,n.d in the absence of information as-:.to the regular military duties, if any,, assigned.to- "Eyewitness," it would be absurd to criticise the arrangement. All the public know is that at irregular intervals reports, generally belated, come from the front. Some are highly informative, some trivial and some palpably valueless. , One or two have been intensely interesting. But if criticism of the work "may be permitted, it must be siaid that from a journalistic point of View the writer has shown an ocoasionnl lack of discrimination and a curious 'failure to judge the relative importance, of events. Possibly some of the- weaknesses are due to military considerations of which the outsider can know nothing.

Considering all things''it must bo said that the Imperial Government missed., an opportunity when the idea, of appointing. a, special official correspondent at the -front was first mooted. Obviously the':man wanted for the post' was one with the journalistic, instinct,, not necessarily a journalist in active work hut at least a, man who had trained himself to catch and "fix" fleeting impressions to lend colour to the narrative of the faehs. The reader of on©"of Colonel Swinton's reports gathers no very definite idea of the nature of war. The later messages, it is true, have shown a. marked improvement in this direction, :but they are still rather ■ cold recitals. Early in the campaign -American, correspondents gave publicity to a, report that "Linesman" was to write the official narrative of the Expeditionary Force in action, the story having doubtless originated in. the fact that the accomplished writer had offered his services to tho ' Government. "Linesman " will be remembered as one of the few new men who acquired literarv fame during the South African war. Nothing better than his letters appeared in that epoch, and one can only express astonishment that, having had the opportunity to make so good an appointment, the Government should have declined the offer. "Linesman " by the way. was informed that it wks not intended to appoint an official correspondent, so that Colonel Swinton's appearance must have been the result of a subsequent decision.

There is another official or semiofficial British correspondent in the field, for one is; attached to the Russian urniv headquarters. This is Professor Bernard Pares, who holds the Chair of the Russian La-nguage ?.nl Literature at the University of Liverpool. This is frankly a literary appointment. Professor Pares was kmtr resident in Russia, and in. Petrograd he ws the correspondent of the " Westminster Gazette." Ho j s tor of the " Russian Review/' and has

written at least one book on Russia. His activities in the campaign have ; been severely circumscribed, and ap- ' parently lie has not been encouraged to ' get at all close to the firing line. Some of the unofficial correspondents have been permitted close views of battles in progress, and have, even been allowed 'to describe their impression"? guardedly, but the journalists attached, to headquarters have had to be content with more modest material. When the last mail left the Old Country Pi <> fessor Pa.res whs describing, grine-.of -the . battlefields of Galicis. ' "' '-*■'- : -