partial statements concerning it should be made by any responsible
writer.

The difficulty of obtaining the exact facts by any ordinary methods is
very great. There is a strict supervision of all news, and to insure
that by news sources no "aid or comfort" is given to the enemy, a vast
amount of pertinent, legitimate, and harmless news and data is
necessarily suppressed. The censors are military men and not news men,
and act from the standpoint that a million facts had better be
suppressed than that a single report should be helpful to the enemy.
Only in Russia are reports of news men from the firing line allowed.

One hears abroad continually of the battle of the Marne, of the battle
of the Aisne, of the contest at Ypres, and the fight on the Yser, but
no outside man has yet been permitted to describe any of these in
detail, or to give the strategy, beginning, end, or boundaries of them,
or even the distinct casualties therefrom. Indeed, it is doubtful if
the official histories, when they are written, can do this, for these
are the emphasized portions of one great and continuous battle that
went on for more than one hundred days.

To illustrate the strength of the hand on the English war news, it may
be noted that there is no mention permitted in the English press of
such a ship as the "Audacious." Yet American papers with photographs
of the "Audacious" as she sinks in the ocean are sold in London and on
the Continent. Outside of London not ten per cent of the people know
anything concerning this boat or her finish.

This word "finish" would be disputed in any newspaper or well-informed
financial office in London where it is daily declared that although the