Now that a certain number of war correspondents, including most of those whose names are known to the public, have been allowed to leave Tokio for the front, it is instructive, not to say illummating, as to how much -better off they will be, to read of the experiences of some who had already preceded them Mr. Jack London of the Hearst newspapers, writing from Antung, then the headquarters of the First Japanese Army, thus described one phase of his experience "On every side is the military secret. The correspondent is hedged around by military secrets. He may not move about for fear he will pop on to a military secret, though what he may do with a military secret only the Japanese know.
First, in order to get @ military secret out of the country, he must show it to the censor and got permission. This obtained, he must dispatch it by Corean runners to Pingyang, a couple of hundred miles to the south, where it may be telegraphed by his agent to Seoul, and from there be cabled vi& Japan, to paper. But granting that the secret has survived all the vicissitudes of the journey to Pingyang and not lost its time value," it is not yot out of the country.
Seven or eight days later a runner arrives with a note from his Pingyang agent telling him that all cables are being held up. So the military secret, like the passant who started for Car-casson, dies unobtrusively of old age on the way.
The position of the correspondent in the Japanese Army is the anomalous one of interloper and honoured guest. The restrictions that stultify all his efforts show the first; the solicitude of his hosts shows the second. If a ski demonstration is to be made, word is sent to him to that effect—also, a further word to the effect that he is to assemble with his colleagues at a certain place and proceed and be directed under the management of an army officer assigned for the purpose.
He is further warned that neither he nor his colleagues may go individually. Still further, he has in his' mind the previous day's instructions from headquarters, as for instance, those of 29th April, from which I quote the following '. Thore is no official news to communicate concerning military operations now proceeding or pending.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.