- from 'the War Budget', November 16th, 1916
- 'Correspondents in the Great War'
Some of the Chiefs That Take Notes from the Lips of Mars
The Great War has seen a few interesting experiments in compromise between official secrecy and popular appetite for sensation. Manifestly the High Commands of both sides would rather fight it out quietly with the gallery cleared; but it has been brought home to them that the people are paying very high prices for seats and have earned a right to know how fares the day. Our adversaries have met this difficulty in a characteristic fashion by showing the crowd what they want the crowd to see. This method looks generous and suits the authorities, but will cause trouble when the cheated spectators find out and want their money back.
Our own Chiefs have tried the unadorned official communiqué, not entirely without success, yet all insufficient and often behind the time. By way of lighter entertainment we got for a spell the officially appointed scribe, disguised under the title of Eye-witness. Had this gentleman been gifted as Argus, with a round hundred of eyes, he might have held the field; but having done and done well all that one observer could do, he retired in favour of the old-time correspondent on a semi-official, limited liability basis. Like the "controlled" munition maker, the war narrator of today has advantages and restraints unknown to his precursors in the art of going into battle with a pen. He is an officer under orders and subject to regulations, some of which govern the extent and quality of his retinue.
He is permitted one male servant, who, like his master, has to be measured and photo- graphed and bound over to be of good behaviour. The correspondent's license to correspond is issued from the War Office by the Army Council, and is forfeitable on conviction by court-martial, or if in the opinion of the Commander-in-Chief in the field his return to obscurity is desirable in the national interests. He may not employ any means of communication other than the postal and telegraph service, however urgent his message, nor may he write in cypher, code or foreign languages. The use of balloons, aeroplanes, motor cars and motor bicycles is also prohibited, but he may possess one horse, which must not be white or light grey. The knight errant's milk-white palfrey is a back number being too attractive to Hun artillerists. The scribe buys his own steed, and if the enemy strafes it, is graciously permitted to buy another from the nearest remount depot. The horse is branded "P.O." in lieu of having its photograph on the license. The correspondent and his servant must dress inconspicuously, and are not allowed to carry arms, except against an uncivilised enemy. So far, the Huns have not been placed in that category in reference to correspondents.
The scribe and his man are instructed to wear a band of green cloth on each arm. Horse and man are both tended gratuitously in case of sickness as if they belonged to the combatant service. Rations also are provided by the taxpayers' representative in the field.
The advantage of official recognition is worth all the restrictions. The scribe knows where to turn up at the right moment, avoiding the tragedy, not unknown in this twentieth century, of missing the big events while following the track of rumour. Granting all this, the War Correspondent is a marvel. Eating and sleeping are occasional accidents, when la great offensive is in progress. Prowling over the field all day and putting his confused ideas into immortal prose all night, he pockets his nerves and mortgages his slumbers for the sake of the people who are paying the biggest price on record for the biggest fight.
What manner of men are these scribblers on the stairs of the Inferno? Not all as their enthralled readers picture them. Most are men of gentle, scholarly habits, fine students, one of nature, one of language, others of literature in a deeper sense. Let us take some of them haphazard.
MR. PHILIP GIBBS
One of the best known is the "Daily Chronicle" representative on the West Front. (see link to Philip Gibbs )
"A falcon not in the best of health," is Mr. G. K. Chesterton's thumb-nail sketch of the "Daily Chronicle's" champion war correspondent. "His expression," continues G. K. "is at once sensitive and incisive. He looked like a grave and gifted man of letters, but he looked, superficially at least, as if he were rather for the study than the stag, nobody could have looked less like the war correspondent of Victorian tradition."
It is more than probable that Mr. Gibbs, even before his mirror, never saw himself on the stage of a war theatre until he was actually let loose among the thunders. His facility for seeing things and describing them had been cultivated in primrose paths, until "The Street of Adventure," of which he wrote so luminously, lured him into an arena where the life-blood that flowed was "blue-black." He is a-high-speed writer, with phrases all ready and similes that come at call. As novelist and sketch writer he revelled in the picturesque. On the battlefield he finds strange beauties in ugly surroundings. Readers feel no impatience when their anxiety about the progress of a battle is held up, to give Mr. Gibbs time for a parenthesis on poppies. Without those poppies the story would not have been complete, yet their presence never once distracts the narrator's mind. The red petals deepen his sense of tragedy, reminding him of a costlier dye, poured out as water at a madman's whim. For so sensitive a man, Mr. Gibbs holds himself wonderfully well in hand. Those who have to decipher his hieroglyphics may well imagine him consumed by a series of great emotions, but the printed words are those of an artist dictated by mature judgment.
Mr. Gibbs's first smell of powder came to him during the recent Balkan wars, when he opened his career in "Streets of Adventure" fit for scenes of a new series of Arabian Nights. He has had a longer experience of the Western. Front in the Great War than any other correspondent, and his book, "The Soul of the War," written after the first year's fighting, is the most popular story of the campaign yet published. Though still in his prime, he has also played the parts of historian, essayist and dramatist.
One of Philip Gibbs's biggest hits, before the war, was the blow he dealt at the famous Dr. Cook's Polar dreams. "It was by a queer glance in the explorer's eyes," wrote the journalist, "that I came to doubt his claim to the discovery of the North Pole." Possibly, if Philip had been granted a straight look at the Kaiser ten years ago, history would have gone on rather differently.
MR. PERCEVAL GIBBON
Mr. Perceval Gibbon, who has recently acted as locum tenens for Philip Gibbs, has more than a similarity of initials to entitle him to a neighbouring niche in the "War Budget" temple of fame. As a writer of stories, both long and short, Mr. Gibbon might if he cared claim the title of born artist. He has the descriptive sense highly developed, and a powerful Appeal to the imagination. One pictures him as still more out of his element in Picardy that the aforetime shy and over-sensitive Mr. Gibbs. Earlier in the course of the war Mr. Gibbon occupied headquarters at Petrograd and Moscow, covering operations on the Russian front. A little over a year ago he was in Berne, and forwarded thence to the "Daily Chronicle" a pen picture of the Kaiser, as seen by a stranger who was at Posen when the War Lord swore to his brave legions that there would be no winter campaign -that the war would be all over and all the mess cleared up by October (1915). Mr. Gibbon also entered into the Bulgarian question, and wrote an illuminating article on the betrayal of his people by Ferdinand.
DR. HAROLD WILLIAMS
Another learned man, credited with knowing the Russians better that they know themselves, and a great linguist in other tongues, is Dr. Harold Williams, who follows the Eastern campaign, or as much of it as one pair of legs and eyes can follow so vast a drama. Since his four brothers are fighting, it may be assumed that there is martial blood in the family veins, but the father of these warriors was a Methodist minister, and almost made a parson of his son Harold.
Russia has cast a mighty spell over this tall, white-haired student of men and tongues. He is welcome everywhere in the Tsar's dominions, and at home with all their dialects. His genius for languages burst upon him suddenly after a boyhood spent in hating and fearing them.
Anzac should be specially proud of Dr. Williams, who was born and bred in New Zealand. The Russian people, he has learned, possess profound depths of character. After the war, he says, there will be no country in the world so energetic.
MR. W. BEACH THOMAS
Mr. W. Beach Thomas, of the "Daily Mail," is a man of parts, being equally at home in athletics, nature studios and literature. At Oxford he became president of the University Athletic Club, an honour won by personal popularity and success in sport. .His journalistic career began with contributions to the "Globe" and "Outlook". The war found him on the staff of the "Daily Mail," which has long since, discovered his genius for vivid description. He is not only a first-class journalist, but a singularly amiable personality, immensely popular with the "boys". Here is a snapshot of him out of harness, by an old chum: "Running, bird-nesting, plover-watching, shooting - it is the open-air spirit that chiefly keeps him at it. He will knock up fifty runs for your village team, then walk round the field viewing your odd-job man, wattle hurdles, or umpire fresh from the harvest barn. Everybody, official and unofficial alike, can trust him. He is clean above anything in the nature of a mean act." Such a man may surely be relied on for a good sporting flourish to his industrious pen.
MR. ASHMEAD BARTLETT
To Mr. Ellis Ashmead Bartlett belongs the honour of having been selected by eleven London dailies to represent them in the Eastern Mediterranean. His previous work for the "Daily Telegraph" had distinguished him as a dashing journalist, with great care for accuracy and immense resource in working against time. In collaboration with Mr. Martin Donohoe, of the "Daily Chronicle," he brought off a sensational triumph in dispatching to London the first accounts of the Turkish defeat at Lule Burgas, which decided the Balkan campaign. One of his greatest performances in the present war was his description of the bombardment of Rheims, but in the way of experiences few writers can have lived through a more eventful episode than Mr. Bartlett's escape from the doomed Majestic. His coolness in that crisis would have done infinite credit to a captain of the fleet.
MR. C. H. PERRIS
The "Daily Chronicle" has been fortunate from the earliest days of the war in its Paris correspondent, Mr. G. H. Perris. To his constant and informative dispatches is largely due the excellent impression in England of France's great share in the Western siege war. He is an authority on the strategy and development of this section of the Homeric struggle, and will almost certainly publish historic reminiscences of the Aisne and Marne. Many of Mr. Perris's reports have been sent direct from the French Army Headquarters, and these are full of detail. He has written with high appreciation of the French Air Service, and followed with keen interest the development of our Ally's strategical genius.
MR. MARTIN H. DONOHOE
Mr. Martin Donohoe's chief claim to immortality, if there be such a prize for journalists, has already been hinted at. Alone, it is probable that neither he nor Mr. Ashmead Bartlett would have brought off the Lule Burgas "scoop." But in the friendliest of rivalries the pair agreed to pool their chances and race the "Times" correspondent, who had a long start, to Constantinople, where they typed the news until their fingers refused to find the keys of their type machines. From Constantinople the dispatches were forwarded to Constanza, and so to England. Another great feat of Mr. Donehoe's was the brilliant series of accounts he sent home of the Lisbon revolution. Mr. Frederic Harrison said of this exploit that he could recall no more striking journalistic success, though familiar with the historic achievements of Russell, Forbes, Pears and other great correspondents.
MR. GEORGE RENWICK AND OTHERS
The Balkan Wars gave Mr. Renwick his opportunity, preparing him for his present task by revealing to his keen eyes the inwardness of Serbia's sorrow and strength. He found the physique of the peasants excellent, a discovery made later by the Austrian invaders. Mr. Renwick also discovered, in a publicity sense, the great Serbian statesman, Pashitch, another Venezelos in penetration and power. It is curious now to find that Pashitch's dream of an alliance with Austria-Hungary only four years ago was shared by Mr. Renwick at that time. Through the Great War, acting as "Daily Chronicle" correspondent, Mr. George Renwick has covered the Gallipoli and Salonika areas, finding plenty of sensations of late in the shuttlecock politics of Greece. His description of the great day and night battle on Achi Baba is one of his best contributions to the story of the Great War.
These names serve as examples of a Press service full of romance, hardship and honours. To the list might be added Percival Phillips of the "Daily Express," A. Beaumont of the "Daily Telegraph," G. Ward Price, whose Balkan telegrams have been shared by several London dailies, Harold Ashton, whose dash over an enemy minefield gave him an exciting first-hand story, and many other daring young scribes, inspired by a theme that puts the Trojan war in the shade.
