General Roberts, commanding in the Kurum Valley, has ex- pelled
Mr. McPherson, the very able correspondent of the Standard, from his camp, for sending information which, in the General's judgment, misled opinion. The power of so expelling correspondents must always be reserved to the head of a force on active service, but it has been exercised in this case with singular indiscretion. Not only was Mr. McPherson an excel- lent correspondent, though possibly a little conceited in his view of his own capacity as a strategist, and the representative.
of a paper friendly to the invasion of Afghanistan, but General Roberts had unusual means of correcting any erroneous im- pressions Mr. McPherson's despatches might produce. Every other correspondent with the force is an officer on the Staff, and the General could, therefore, always be certain that the exact truth, as he himself regarded it, should always be published at home. With such a guarantee against mis- representation, to expel a correspondent for being rather' waspishly independent shows either that General Roberts is afraid of the truth, or, which is much more probable, that he cannot tolerate any criticism whatever. That means, of course, that though he may have the qualities of a soldier, he cannot have those of a statesman, and should not, when the fighting is done, be left in control of a new province. The effect of his action will be that any slight reverse he may sustain will be believed by the public to be serious, and that any account of his successes will be supposed to be written as
per order, and partially disbelieved. With a curious navete, he followed up his order of expulsion by another appointing a correspondent of the Standard, whose letters our contemporary very properly refused to publish. One wonders whether he fixed the correspondent's salary.
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