Page:The Newspaper and the Historian.djvu/246

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Yet other correspondents have protested against this concep

tion of the special correspondent's work . Labouchere, under date of December 24, 1870 , wrote with great emphasis, “ Had I been

M . Jules Favre , I confess that I should have turned out all foreign journalists at the commencement of the siege . He, how ever, expressed a wish that they should remain in Paris, and his fellow -citizens must not now complain that they decline to en

dorse the legend which , very probably , will be handed down to future generations of Frenchman as the history of the siege of Paris.” 19 On the other hand, the absolute truth as conveyed by corre spondents may lead to international controversies, ministerial complications, and personal disaster to the correspondents.

Frederick Boyle , the correspondent of the London Standard, was expelled from Russia because certain phrases, the truth of which was not denied, were offensive to the government.20 In

1902, the correspondent of the London Times in Russia was ex pelled for too truthfully reporting one of the many organized per

secutions of the Jews.21 Valentine Chirol, who represented the London Times in Berlin , was expelled for speaking plainly in regard to the Kaiser's dispatch to President Krüger anent the Jameson raid .22 Robert Dell, long the Paris correspondent of the Manchester Guardian, was expelled by the French Government because his political comments seemed objectionable.23 The not

infrequent expulsion of foreign correspondents seems to have been due not to false statements but to truthful letters when the truth has been embarrassing to the government concerned . The special foreign correspondent is always in a peculiarly trying position as well as in one involving serious responsibility.

Not only are his own government and his own newspaper con cerned as well as the foreign capital where he resides, but he has a 19 Diary of the Besieged Resident, pp. 262–263. 20 Narrative of an Expelled Correspondent, pp. v -xxiv . The volume gives much information concerning the status of newspaper correspondents dur ing the Russo - Turkish War.

21 G . M . Royce, in New York Times, July 15 , 1917. 22 Wolf von Schierbrand, “ Confessions of a Foreign Newspaper Corre spondent,” World 's Work, April, 1903, 5: 3355 -3358.

23 Dial, June 6 , 1918, 64: 547–548; foreign comment on the expulsion ,

Dial, July 18 , 1918, 65: 56 -57.