Jan, 31.
Im 1911 learning that Canton was about to] declare its independence of Peking, the "Hongkong Telegraph" sent one of the members of its staff to "cover" the event. On' arrival in Canton he found that a close censorship had been established, and when the declaration was made he was for a short while nonplussed as to how to get the information, to his paper. Eventually he addressed a telegram to his editor at the Hong-Kong Club something like this:—"Baby born to-day parents delighted." The meaning of! the message was clear, and that afternoon the! correspondent's journal carried the message Canton declared its independence to-da; amid the general rejoicings of the populace. About thirteen years ago a Reuter cable from. London stated that seismologists reported a big earthquake, giving the distance of the epicentre from London and concluding that it was somewhere on the Asiatic continent. Some six weeks later a local journal received a long letter from Kansu reporting a huge] earthquake und giving a most striking account of the disaster. 'Two members of the editorial staff read the account. They were' both, correspondents for London newspapers. One' said it was an excellent story to be cabled home. The other remarked "But the story is six weeks old. It's not worth it 'The former replied:—"it may be six weeks] old, but this story has only just come out. Tt Is new and, therefore, news." He cabled 'a Tong account to his' journal. It was and eventually the story appeared Literary Digest" under the caption. "The Earthquake Which Was Lost." Telegraphic communication had been destroyed, and the letter with a touching description of] a Roman Catholic Sister's heroic death was] the very first account to reach the coast from Kansu, It is only in very exceptional cases, and only when it is desired to send a very simple message, that it is possible to defeat efficient censorship, and matters are so complicated in China at the moment that it would require the greatest ingenuity to concoct a cable! likely to escape the eagle eyes of the gentlemen at present working in Shanghai cable offices, That disposes of the first of the two stories told above. The second has an entirely, and, probably, note important implication. ' Fol lowing the revelation by this journal of what! had been going on in Nanking, a number of correspondents sought to, send excerpts from its editorial article on the subject to their respective newspapers. The censors refused to let such despatches go forward. Why, it fs still dificult to understand. The cables contained nothing which might have been of military value to the Chinese; that is what it to be supposed the censorship was established to prevent, and on that score should have been allowed to pass. That such messages were distasteful to the censors may be taken as much for granted, as they were to the men who had to compile them.
believed that that is the reason why this action, concerning which a protest or protests were subsequently made, was taken, and may be accepted as an attempt to prevent the sad story reaching the outside world, It was doomed to failure: Reports appearing {in yesterday's issue indicate that much more has appeared in London than was printed in Shanghai, It reached London a week late, but it was new when it arrived there, and was, consequently, news. Such a story, it it had' not got out of China for months would still have been fresh when it reached the newspaper offices in other parts of the world, and the lesson which the whole incident teaches is that a censorship which endeavours to suppress information, because it dislikes it, or denies its truth, does not in fact do so, but merely delays its publication. "The Kansui earthquake story, though it did not reach the world until six weeks after the event, was: news when eventually it was known, The fact that the emergence of the story was delayed by the action of the local censors gave it greater significance, if that were possible. The editors of the big national newspapers, in Britain particularly, have had brought home to them the fact that their cor= respondents are encountering some difficulty in sending their reports from here, and will naturally attach much importance to any' message which they perceive has been subject to delay indicative of suppression in Shang hal by the officials operating in the local cable offices. Viewed in this light it must be apparent to those concerned that action, such as was taken at the end of the wel before last, was at least unfortunate. It was not good propaganda, but very much the opposite, and, at the present time, Japan needs all the good propaganda she can possibly obtain. Even if the legality of: the censorship wf foreigners' cables is admitted, and it is not, arbitrary suppression of press messages can''serve no good end, but only the unhappy one of tending to create a bad impression, If it is desired that-such news shall not be sent abroad, then every care should be taken to avoid the incidents upon which the cables in question were based. The remedy Is, therefore, entirely in Japanese hands, and this might be emphasized by another story of something which happened in the United States Court for China. A party appearing before the late Judge Milton D. Purdy asked him to'instruet the reporters in Court not to publish an account of the. case in which he was involved. This Judge Purdy refused to do, adding "The best way to keep out of the papers is to keep out of Court." Japan is very much before the Court of world opinion and nothing is more likely to sway it than a belief that attempts are being made to suppress the' facts. These things have to be said for Japan's own sake, for she is not well served if the actions Of her officials tond'to prejudice her case.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.