On this day: Oct 19 1915
Sir John Simon was asked last week, during a discussion on the Censor’s famous emendation of Kipling, whether the salary of the official concerned was still a charge on the people of this country. The language actually employed was stronger and more colloquial, and it may have been due to this fact that (in the words of the Parliamentary report) “no answer was returned to the honourable member”. The honourable member, however, has not had long to wait. The Times of yesterday contained a first-hand account of the fighting at Hulluch on October 13. In the course of it our correspondent at Headquarters, describing the storm of shells, gases, and other means of destruction which fell upon the enemy, was rash enough to quote Browning’s Twenty-nine distinct damnations, One sure, if the other fails. His message was duly submitted to the Censor, who passed it without material alteration — except for the Browning quotation.
Now we cannot pretend to fathom the military reasons which rendered it indiscreet to quote the text of a great poem as its author wrote it. Whether the suggestion that our methods of destruction numbered twenty nine would give information to the Germans, or whether strict accuracy refused to countenance the implication that they were so numerous, or whether too precise a familiarity with Browning was calculated to depress the people of this country, or to shake their confidence in the Government — in short, whatever the motive of the Censor may have been, we can only record the fact. And the fact is that the words “twenty-nine distinct” were neatly ruled out and the single word “different” inserted instead of them. We do not complain. Incidents far less trivial and far more damaging to our national reputation are daily features of the Censorship; we ourselves have been cautious of the classics since the day a quotation from Chatham was forbidden by the Censor, who seems to have confused the great War Minister with the naval base from which he took his title. But we suggest to the honourable member that here is the answer to the question which Sir John Simon ignored the other day. Is it conceivable that the Censors number two such “idiots” in their ranks?