 Coverage in Germany was more muted , with some newspapers strongly criticising those who had taken part , and no pictures published . In France , meanwhile , the greater level of press censorship ensured that the only word that spread of the truce came from soldiers at the front or first @-@ hand accounts told by wounded men in hospitals . The press was eventually forced to respond to the growing rumours by reprinting a government notice that fraternising with the enemy constituted treason , and in early January an official statement on the truce was published , claiming it had happened on restricted sectors of the British front , and amounted to little more than an exchange of songs which quickly degenerated into shooting . 
