“LIKE PARTING WITH OWN HEART’S BLOOD.”

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18959, 4 January 1930, Page 10

“LIKE PARTING WITH OWN HEART’S BLOOD.”

KITCHENER HAD STRONG DISLIKE OF THE PRESS. General Sir lan Hamilton, presiding not long ago at a lecture given in England before a meeting of the Institute of Journalists by Mr Ernest Smith, the war correspondent, said that in the last six months of the South African War Lord Kitchener sent for him to be his Chief of Staff. “When I came.” said Sir lan, “I was not treated as Chief of Staff at all Instead I was put in charge of the two things that Lord Kitchener loathed—one of which was the Press. “It was like parting with a drop of his own heart’s blood to give the public any information he had. I hope I will not be taken for slandering Lord Kitchener—it was merely idiosyncrasy but the fact remains that he loathed parting with any news to the public—he thought it was not right. “ My first despatch from the Dardanelles,” continued Sir lan, “ was met by Lord Kitchener with a request that I would agree to the names of the units being left out, and that, instead of saying that the Lancashire Fusiliers or the Royal Fusiliers had done this, that, and the other, I should say, ‘a certain unit.' ‘No,’ I said, ‘let my despatches go unaltered, and let the people know what their sons have done.* “ I would let London know what the Royal Fusiliers did, and Manchester what the Lancashire Fusiliers did. It is perfectly true there is a military ob jection but that objection is as nothing compared with the enthusiasm raised in a whole county by hearing what the men of that county are doing. Therefore, I say: ‘Trust your war correspondent, and give him as free a hand as possible.' ” It was thought by some people. Sir lan added, that modern warfare had destroyed the war correspondent’s chances. The Great War was static. If there ever were another war, it might be one of terrific movement, with-the clash of armies in the clouds. Big newspapers would then send their special correspondents forward in aeroplanes, so that it could not, in these days, be truly said that the adventures of the war correspondent were at an end. Mr Smith, relating his experiences in the South African War, said that on “Mournful Monday,” October 30, 1899, before breakfast, he saw a Victoria Cross won; before lunch saw an army of 12,000 British troops returning to Ladysmith after failing to shift the Boers; and before dinner time was captured by the Boers, and held more or less a prisoner for two hours. The Boers who captured him behaved, he said, in a very sportsmanlike way. He was taken up the hill to see the battlefield, and the commanding officer gave the accompanying guard instructions to tell him everything he wanted to know, and. above all, to take care that he was not insulted. Boers who passed by noticed he had a camera, and asked him to take their photographs, and this he did. When he got back to Ladysmith the military authorities threatened to send him back to London for going outside the British lines and holding communication with the enemy.