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Show oo WHERE NEWSPAPERS ARE MANY. Discussing a dispatch from Saloniki, describing the newspapers of that city, a group of Ogdenites reached the conclusion that a fearless, Independent Inde-pendent newspaper untrammeled by interests seeking special privileges and free from tricky politics, is an invaluable asset to any community. The news item under consideration stated that the French and British troopers stationed in Saloniki sinco the beginning of the Allied-Balkan undertaking never cease to marvel at the number of newspapers able to live in a city of, normally, only about 150,000 inhabitants, of whom a very large percentage cannot read or write. Though the second city of Greece since its conquest by the Greeks in the last Balkan war, Saloniki has never been and is not now in any real sense a Greek city. Indeed, a scant 25 per cent of the population i& Greek. Yet the city supports five Greek daily newspapers, three morning morn-ing and two afternoon Journals. Besides Be-sides these, probably the most widely read of all is the unique dally, the Forward, which Is printed in Hebrew characters for the benefit of the overwhelming over-whelming Jewish population of the place but Hebrew characters spelling spell-ing out Spanish, not Hebrew words' The newspapers of all Greece play a very Important if not a dominant part In the politics so much the leading lead-ing occupation of the Greeks. There Is no such thing in Greece as a politically politi-cally independent newspaper, in the sense that a newspaper may be politically politi-cally independent in the United States or in France. Every Greek daily is either for or against Venizelos that being the cardinal political test. This is true, of course, of those In Saloniki as well. The Light, a morning, and The New Truth, an evening journal, are tho Greek antl-Venizelist organs, though the former in addition to being bitterly bit-terly opposed to tho late premier Is also pronouncedly pro-German. The Macedonia and the Greece, both morn ing Journals, are the Venizelos organs In Saloniki, though the Anchor, an evening journal, while more militarist than anytihng else, also supports Venizelos. The Spanish-Hebrew evening ev-ening paper, the Forward, is as Its name implies, socialist in politics and pro-German. While a mixture of Spanish and Italian is the current tongue spoken by the great majority of the Inhabitants Inhabi-tants of Saloniki, French Is also spoken spok-en widely, generally understood and universally read. There are, therefore, there-fore, four French dailies published in Saloniki a morning and an evening paper for each political point of view. But in respect of the newspapers published pub-lished In French, there is more partisanship parti-sanship on the subject of the European Euro-pean war. L'Opinion in the morning and LIndependent in the evening are the word-bearers of the Entente powers pow-ers and especially of the French, though both are edited by natives of Saloniki. On the other hand, The Courier of Saloniki and The New Country, both in French, are accepted as almost official pro-German organs. The former is a socialist paper closely close-ly affiliated with the German socialist social-ist party, and the latter Is virtually tho mouthpiece of the Austrian Consulate Con-sulate at Saloniki. One other French newspaper is worthy of mention- The Journal of the French warship Charlemagne, which while not technically published in Saloniki has its circulation there, rt is by far the newsiest sheet to be had in Saloniki, for it prints all the official communiques of the various countries at war, as well as a great deal of information gleaned from tho wireless service of the French battleship battle-ship It is distributed froe of charge to all the Allied ships lying In the harbor, to the headquarters and various var-ious other offices of the Allied armies on land, and may be subscribed for by private individuals at the rate of fifty cents a month. Since the arrival of the British troops, an English newspaper has also been started and is said to be very prosperous. It Is called The Balkan News, and is published under the auspices aus-pices of the editors of the French journals jour-nals L'Opinion and L'lndopendent |
