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Show J HOW DID THEY GET THE NEWS. IS QUESTION. I Considerably slower than the publication of the actual news of i the peace conference at Portsmouth have the newspaper men in attendance at-tendance at the New Hampshire town leen in telling their own ex- perience8 and the difficulties with which they had to contend. - Newspaper men are not accustomed to write much about themselves, them-selves, though they could often tell stories of their own daily routine rou-tine which would far surpass those that find their way into print. Newspaper readers who followed the course of the negotiations at the conference could not but have been struck by the remarkably complete and lucid accounts of each day's proceedings. How they were able to enjoy this early information they do not know, and few ever will. f The peace envoys decided when they went into sessio that one of their number should act as press agent and issue a brief bulletin of eight lines or so to the newspaper men at the nd of every meeting. meet-ing. . These bulletins generally contained just about this much' information: in-formation: "At the fourth session of the Portsmouth peace confer-' ence articles 6 and 7,were considered. There was complete, accord and harmony among the plenipotentiaries." ; Of Course, this did not satisfy the correspondent. The readers of the metropolitan 'press would not be content with such informationV Theyx wanted the news, fully-reported. It had been agreed by .theen joy that the greatest secrecy as to the proceedings should be 'maintained. Tbe Unjted Statej Government took precautions that there should be no eavesdropping; guards, were kept around the building where the meetings were held, and the halls were constantly patrolled, The envoys had agreed to gar nothing to the newspaper men beyond the official bulletin. It looked like an impossible thing for the correspondents cor-respondents to give coherent accounts of the proceedings. ' - --' ' r And yet, at the close ( of each day, every paper ip the land was . furnished with a complete and accurate account of all that had been discussed and agreed to by the peace-makers. How it was done is a different matter. It is part of the ethics of the newspaper profession never to give away a source of information. So the i world is in darkness as to how the conference was reported. Some day, it may pot be in our time, some veteran who was at the Ports-I Ports-I mouth conference, will relate how the newspaper men got their in formation. When this happens; the world is sure to get a story of the most intense interest. It will combine the features of an Anna I Katherjne Green or Sherlock Holmes detective' story, and might serve as a text book for diplomats. At any rate,nthemost interesting interest-ing facts of the famous conference are yet to bp published... . |