In London the staff of the Associated Press, as it is familiarly called, is under the direct supervision of Mr. Walter Neef, who is in charge of the entire European service.
The correspondents resident on the continent are in close touch with the Chancelleries, and are welcomed at their respective Foreign Offices with a kindness that speaks eloquently for the friendship these European nations are willing to offer to America.
The first news of the arbitration treaty that sealed the Anglo-French “entente” was cabled to New York by the Associated Press from Paris, and re-cabled to London, where it was promptly denied by no less an authority than the Times. The first news of the recent Anglo-Spanish treaty came to England from the Associated Press in New York, having been cabled from its London office.
When Martinique was devastated by a volcanic eruption, which included among its victims the correspondent of the Associated Press at St. Pierre, the Fort de France representative called on Mr. Melville E. Stone, the General Manager, then in New York, for assistance.
Mr. Stone promptly placed a steamer at his service, and the other correspondents of the Associated Press in places of danger were rescued, and lived to tell to the world the story of that hideous visitation.
This cost the Associated Press about £5,000, and that is the sum it usually expends on the international yacht races for the America Cup, which are reported for England and America by correspondents and half a dozen special boats equipped with wireless telegraphic instruments.
When Pope Leo died, London, Paris, Berlin and other European capitals got the first intimation of his death from New York. The Associated Press correspondent in Rome had telegraphed the news on which all the world waited, and it had arrived in America exactly nine minutes after having been sent out from the Vatican, which is nearly two miles from the central telegraphic office in Rome.
This gave the Associated Press time to re-cable the news to Europe before it had arrived from another source. On that day the Associated Press published in its American papers over one page of closely printed description of the events centering round the Vatican, all of which was cabled from Rome after 4 o’clock on the preceding afternoon.
When Cardinal Sarto was elected Pope, the news again came to Europe in the same way—from the Associated Press office in New York. The decision of the Alaska Boundary Commission was cabled by the Associated Press to New York and Canada on a Saturday, and re-cabled back to England for the Sunday papers, though it was not officially announced in London until the following Tuesday.
To come to still more recent events, the news of the transmission of Russia’s final note to Japan was received in London from the St. Petersburg correspondent of the Associated Press via New York, while despatches from the same agency announced in America the rupture of diplomatic relations and the practical outbreak of war as early as Saturday afternoon on February 6.