War's Brighter Side: The Story of The Friend Newspaper Edited by the Correspondents with Lord Roberts's Forces, March-April, 1900Ralph, Julian
History
War's Brighter Side: The Story of The Friend Newspaper Edited by the Correspondents with Lord Roberts's Forces, March-April, 1900
Ralph, Julian
Friend (Bloemfontein, South Africa); South African War, 1899-1902 -- Periodicals
We entered Bloemfontein on March 13th. Two days later I was asked by
Mr. F. W. Buxton, of the _Johannesburg Star_, to attend a meeting of
some other correspondents and Lord Stanley in Lord Stanley's office on
that day. I had caught up with the army by a dangerous journey with
only two companions across the veldt from Kimberley, where an injury
to my leg had laid me up. I had reported myself to Lord Stanley, the
censor. I had previously carried on some correspondence with him, but
our personal acquaintance had not been of more than five minutes'
duration. I could not, therefore, know at that time that he was to
prove himself the most competent of all the censors appointed to
supervise the work of us correspondents. In saying that he was the
"most competent" I mean that he ranked above all the others in every
quality which goes to make up fitness for this unceasing and exacting
work. He had quick intelligence, great breadth of judgment, unfailing
courtesy, unbroken patience, and all the modesty of a truly able man.
Hardly can the average reader estimate the degree of satisfaction with
which we correspondents came quickly to realise the admirable
qualities of this first and only fair and considerate censor that most
of us had known in the war. At one place we knew a censor who read the
letters which came to officers and privates from their wives in
England, and who used to regale his chance acquaintances with
comparisons between the sterling virtues and deep affection of the
letters to Tommy, and the colder, more selfish, and even querulous
messages of the wives of officers.
At another place we had a censor who obliged us to hand to him our
letters to our wives and sweethearts unsealed, and in one case this
censor kept for twenty-four hours a letter I had written to my family.
Still another censor showered his contempt upon certain correspondents
who, in every way which goes to make up refinement, self-respect, and
dignity, were many times better men than he. It amused him to take the
despatches of a Colonial lad, who was doing his best to enter upon an
honourable career, and throw them in his waste basket daily for ten
days without informing the youth of their fate. It pleased him to
insult me by telling me that the only message I could send to England
must be a description of a sandstorm; while to Mr. E. F. Knight, a man
Lord Methuen said he "was proud to have with his army," this censor
said, "There is only one thing I will allow you to write--that is, a
description of a new Union Jack which has just been run up over the
headquarters."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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