ess too seriously in this country -- Some of its blunders
during the war -- A proposal to put German officer prisoners on
board transports as a protection -- A silly mistake over the
promotion of general-officers -- Why were tanks not adopted
before the war! -- A paean about Sukhomlinoff -- A gross
misstatement -- Temporary officers and high positions in the
field -- A suggestion that the Press should censor itself in time
of war -- Its absurdity -- The Press Bureau -- Some of its
mistakes -- Information allowed to appear which should have been
censored -- Difficulties of the censors -- The case of the shell
shortage -- Difficulty of laying down rules for the guidance of
the censors -- The Press and the air-raids -- A newspaper
proprietor placed at the head of the Air Service -- The result --
The question of announcing names of units that have distinguished
themselves -- Conclusion.

It is inevitable, perhaps, that a rather time-honoured War Office
hand--thirteen years of it, covering different periods between 1887
and 1918--should entertain somewhat mixed feelings with regard to the
Press. As long as I can remember, practically, the War Office has
provided a sort of Aunt Sally for the young men of Fleet Street to
take cock-shies at when they can think of nothing else to edify their
readers with, and uncommonly bad shots a good many of them have made.
Assessment at the hands of the newspaper world confronts every public
department. Nor can this in principle be objected to; healthy,
well-informed criticism is both helpful and stimulating. But although
many of the attacks delivered upon the War Office by the Fourth
Estate, in the course of that perpetual guerilla warfare which is
carried on by journalism in general against the central administration
of the army, have been fully warranted, the fact remains that no small
proportion of them has been based upon misapprehension, and that a
good many of them can be put down to pure ignorance. Never has this
been more apparent than during the progress of the Great War. But a
reason for this suggests itself at once; many newspapers, no doubt,
for the time being lost the services of members of their staff who
possessed some qualification for expatiating upon military questions.

It has to be acknowledged that the Press was badly treated by the War
Office and G.H.Q. at the outset. This circumstance may have
c