English War Correspondents in South Africa Boer War

The excitement of the work of war-correspondents is considerable, and the danger is very great. The mortality amongst them is always enormous, considering their number. No campaign passes without several sinking before either the weapons of the enemy, or disease that always dogs a fighting force. They have to expose themselves more than soldiers, in order to get their news; and when the work of the soldier is done, that of the correspondent is beginning, for he has to write his description of the battle, and walk or ride perhaps twenty-five miles or more to get it on the wire. Enormous physical endurance is to him absolutely necessary.

When the Transvaal war broke out, experienced newspaper managers realized that there would be unusual difficulties in supplying the world with news. The cable lines from South Africa are entirely under the control of the British government, and every message must go through either Cape Town or Aden. This gave the English censor enormous powers, which have been used to the full. From first to last only such cable messages have passed as the British Generals desired and even letters have been examined.

Mr. Winston Spencer Churchill, the youngest of the correspondents, can hardly be said to have gained fame in this war, for he was famous before it. But he has certainly added greatly to his laurels. He is a living proof that smart "young men" are not a monopoly of either side of the Atlantic. Son of the most original and meteoric of modern English statesmen, Lord Randolph Churchill, he found himself, five years ago, a subaltern of twenty at Aldershot. He had joined the army for the sake of adventure; and as no adventures promised in England, he obtained leave and hurried off to witness the fighting in Cuba between Spaniards and Cubans. Somehow he found himself nearer and nearer to the fighting-line, until finally he was in it. When his leave was up he returned to England, decorated with the First-Class Order of Military Merit.

But the boy seemed to look out for danger. He rode on a white pony, the most conspicuous of all marks, and all the prayers of his friends could not make him give it up for a safer beast. War followed war. To his military duties he added the business of special correspondent, and revealed unusual powers