Doctored News?

The charge was widely" made, last week, that U. S. and British news-organs are mostly presenting inadequate and deliberately biased Chinese news. In Paris, Le Temps printed a semi-official French Governmental warning:

"It has become necessary to warn the public against misleading news from English sources sent from China, which in no way corresponds to realities."

In London, the Opposition kept Foreign Secretary Sir Austen Chamberlain continually on the grill, answering questions which disputed the veracity of the official British-- version of events at Nanking (TIME, April 4) when Chinese rioted and U. S. and British gunboats shelled the city. Finally, in the House of Commons, Captain Duff-Cooper (Conservative) asked Sir Austen whether he knew that the Labor weekly, published by George Lansbury, M. P. (Opposition) had actually declared that the members of the Baldwin Cabinet are collectively responsible for the loss of life at Nanking. "So they are!" shouted Mr. Lansbury. "What I said in type I repeat here and now!"

Sir Austen, cool, said: "I do not feel it my duty as apparently the Honorable Member does, to doubt the word of British representatives in China." Up and down England the fact was apparent that British news from China is becoming a medium for political manipulation and strife.

In Manhattan, the fact that the meticulously accurate Times has ceased to employ Mr. Thomas F. Millard as its correspondent in China aroused comment. His work has been of such high, impartial character that contemporary historians writing upon China have nearly all referred to his despatches. Replacing Mr. Millard, the Times has sent to China, Correspondent Frederick Moore. Of him the American Committee for Justice to China, in Manhattan, said, last week, is a circular news despatch:

"Many letters of protest have been and are being sent to the Editor of the New York Times asking for the dismissal of Mr. Frederick Moore, whose strong-prejudices and interests make him incompetent as an impartial gatherer of news."

Mr. Millard is now employed by the New York World.