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Show SCORES TREATMENT OF WAR CORRESPONDENTS (Newspaper Man Tells British Statesman Attitude I of England Shows Bad Judgment; Places ! Blame on Lord Kitchener. i j By ORTON TEWSON. j Special Cable to The Tribune. LONDON. Dec 12. Th e r. a tfn g frankness, the simple slncerltv of almost all members of tha British government from cabinet mlnls-j mlnls-j Lars down Is -perhaps more as j tonlahlnff to the stranger lijin the al-j al-j moet Insurmountable difficulties placed i between government members and the I stranger. j This general fact was borne In on me ' today with overwhelming force wb--n I I had the prlvtlepe of beinr rresent at a I converfatton between a forror cabinet I minister ai.d atill one ofinpl-xnd' b ' irg sta:emen and one of the fwr.' of war correspondents who huve been coil-. coil-. i-ts their heeia at tiie wir ofi'.ce for t three months, awaiting permission to pet to the front. Patience ReaUy Virtue. The war correspondent, one of the most able and best known figures in the newspaper news-paper world, with a record of act!e servloe In a half dozen -treat wars, came j to London at the outbreak of tho wur at thu invitation of the British govern-I govern-I ment to represent several hundred news-I news-I papers of a neutral country. Finally, two weeks a-'O. despairing of I seeing actual fighting from behind the i allied lines, the war correspondent mnoe j a trip to Germany. From the moment of his arrival In that country he met with unexampled courtesy and found that I his calling made him persona grata everywhere. every-where. In a week ne had feen everything every-thing so far a.A the German army Is concerned con-cerned thai an experienced war correspondent corre-spondent could wish to see. Airs His "Knowledge." Returning to London the correspondent hoped to be able to turn his experience In Germany to some use In convincing the powers that be that their policy of casing newspaper men is all wrong. To this end he was systematically approaching approach-ing men of power in the covernmom and In the opposition and laying before them the salient facts in the case. "The Germans, sir," he declared a t one point, "ask for publicity. They help you to K;t the information j'ou seek In every way possible; they provide for a correspondent's creature comforts and provide him with unasked -for assistance In minutest details. From a personally conducted tour of an army corpse to a tooth brush beside vour cot when you awake In a tent, there Ir nothing the German army fails to do for a newspaper man who wants to 'do' this war." "I can quite believe you." replied the Htatsman, gravely. "In the matter cf organization or-ganization tha German army is as nearly perfect a thine I auppoae as tho world has ever seen.' The admission wns made fllmply, sincerely. sin-cerely. It wrm the utterance of a man at the same time keenly appreciative and duly awake to his own country's inferiority inferi-ority In this respect. But the correspondent correspon-dent was not to be swerved from his purpose pur-pose by disarming guile. "Admitting perfect organization," he went on. "the point is the spirit that animates them In their treatment of war correspondents is the same spirit thn t animates the proprietor of any enterprise that needs successful publicity. And in Germany, aa in America, the discovery hae been made that no enterprise, from a circus to a war, can be conductod successfully suc-cessfully if the proprietors In either ca.se are hostile to, or contemptuous of, the preHH." "It is snrely crass Ig-norance that admits ad-mits of either hostility or contempt whore newFpapers are concerned," agroed the statesman, smilingly. "What Is the eplrtt that animates your government In this war?" asked the cor-respondont. cor-respondont. "I nsHtire you," replied the statesman earnestly, "you nre quite mlMnfonned." "If I tun, said the correspondent, "can you te'l me why I am Invited by this government to come here to Join the correspondent cor-respondent who are to cover the war from the British teles and then kpt wnlMng for thrr months without so much a a word or ex'-iu.?'' "I unde.-.-;ii t.d," replied the statesman, "that l: Is t.le IY-r h army ant!. unites who fit-je-'t to the pr"cn'e of a ar ror-rr ror-rr portent at th front, ar.d I nnd-rs'aml alio tr.ht fo long aa the fichtimf U 1 o-l.-ig r ;ti--d on l-'r-r,. i .vl! it ts t i;e French ar.d not th Ihltih who have the fay In these matters." Repartee In Slan. "We havo an cxpr jrslon In the country coun-try I come from that fits that statement," state-ment," replied the eorrepor 'dent. "We call It ';.aMi.g tl.e burk." Tiie fnrt !s that It Is not tr.e French but tho BiStish ?.o are hiCMr.g i: nM up here. Vour o'.mi war !f:ico admits that this la fo." "That wo, ill sefTii to put the resprn.!-bllity resprn.!-bllity on Lord Ktlrlieix r," suggt-su-d the Htat-.-tman a little doubtfully. "There no question about that. It la Ixjrd Kl'merier," ?-aid the correspondent. correspon-dent. "But tne responsibility resta on the British government, nut on any one man." "gulto so." assented th statesman. "But t-o lar us I am concerned, and I think I ma y f-ay so fo r as virtually aU the members of the government and of the opposition are concerned, there Is much to dt-plore In tins refusal to have trained Jovirrialiets at tiie front. To ask a soldier to write for the public U quite as absurd as asking a Journalist to do a poldler'fi work." "But the. fact r- mains that more than three months of the greatest war In the world's history have come and yone and not one man able to tell the public about It has been allowed to do so. If the govt ernment and tho o profit ion are united In a wish to end this blindfolding the people say why docs It continue?" "Lord Kitchener," replied the statesman, states-man, "Ib a very obstinate mam" Does Old Idea Prevail? "He is also Ignorant." replied the correspondent, cor-respondent, "so far as knowing what correspondents are In these (lays is concerned- I understand he has never even read the International rules laid dnwn for war correspondents since the Prussian -Japanese war. He thinks of them Mill as they were In the days of the hVuuan, when every war correspondent cor-respondent had his own camel, with which he poked Us and hie own nose into oil manner of plaxes and made himself him-self the 'unnecepgnry nuisance' ha was properly called in thusc days." "I must confers." said the statesman, "that I have never seen tho rules you refer to." "They are In printed form," replied the correspondent, "and show that tho modern war correspondent has about as much freedom of action as nn Infant with Its nurse. It hough we are a II put on our hormr, although we are all picked men, although making public one fact that could conceivably be of benefit to the enemy would disgrace a man for tho rest of his life In addlt'on to these facts we are so closely chaperoned at the front that a master spy would give up in de-si de-si air. If I send you a copy of the rules will ju read them, sir?" "With the greatest pleasure." "Will you alpo try to Induce Lord Kitchener to read them?" "Indeed I shall." paid the statesman. "And If you are correct In your assumption assump-tion that he has not read them who knows?" There was n lonjr pause. The statesman states-man wns obvfou'dy searching for words to express an Uhva, His eyes roved the j veiling for a space, they narrowed. And I then: ' ou know It la not only the government govern-ment and thi! opposition who resent this scarcity of news and the lnnde-unte descriptive de-scriptive writings which we are permitted per-mitted to have. The people are most re-yentful. re-yentful. T ley have, submitted, In some j capes without grumbling, to tho edict but they don't like P. I shall have to see Lord Kite lie nor and tell him of these rules. I shall do my best, you may be sur'." Auain he p;'.u.-ed. But this time ' when he spoke bin face was lit with a j sm'ie and there whs something of opttm- lsn'i ;'n the twinkle of his eye. "JtSlt he Is a very obstinate man," |