(Continued from page 4.) for the purpose of suppression of Mews which could not have the slightest possible political signi-cance.
It Is not intended here to sui Jgest that the process of censorship. should not be availed of when necessary, or to deny the right of larly government—no matter how unfortunate its results might be—to"impose such for the purpose of protecting the nation when occasion Jdemands it, But it is suggested in al) earnestness that the permanent institution of a Ip, Joperated upon lines of complete Jeccentricity, and resorting not only to excision but to the actual inter-Jjection of words not used by the correspondent must in the long run [defeat itself. There is one other point which, perhaps, the author!- ties might desire to consider, and that is the secrecy with which the process is carried out. Until he hears from home the correspondent. is in complete ignorance as to Jwhether his message has been interfered with or not, and certainly Jeven then can only guess why the censor though fit to intervene. The point which seems to be lost sight of is that this form of cen-Jsorship does not prevent the truth being ultimately known. True, it delays it for the time being, but the Chinese authorities may rest assured that no such censorship can succeed jin maintaining a final and complete Jsuppression of the facts. General ly speaking it is the ephemera of Mews which is cabled abroad. In Jo few cases political surveys are telegraphed, but they are decidedly jin the minority; in the main the correspondent relies on the mails for the fuller expositions which are too expensive if sent by cable or Jwireless. In the case of what ts purely news, suppression or alteration ju Shanghai in many cases 1 Jquite useless, because of the practice of issuing communiques in fany foreign capital on major points in which a nation is likely to be interested. But what is even lof greater importance to a country ike China is that all suspicion of official interference with news Jeables should be reduced to a minimum, and that the interpole tion of useless and redundant Jwords should be discontinued. It believed that it will be sufficient {for the attention of the authorities be drawn to the matter to bring about an improvement in the matter of handling press cables, which, will prove even more beneficial to China itself than the very obvious alterations which are at present being effected.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.