LIE REPEATED

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 60, Issue 33, 18 November 1939, Page 5

LIE REPEATED

“AN IMPUDENT FALSEHOOD.” NO POISON-GAS IN POLAND. NEUTRALS FAVOURABLY IMPRESSED. (United Press Association—Copyright.) (Received This Day, 1.15 p.m.) LONDON, November 17. There appears to bo no cessation in the circulation by Nazi. propagandists of the fabricated charge against Britain of having supplied the poison-gas which is alleged to have been used against Gorman soldiers in Poland.

Although a complete refutation of what Mr Chamberlain described as “an impudent and transparent falsehood” had boon given in official British statements, reports from various parts of the world show that Nazi agencies are still assiduously distributing leaflets repeating this lie.

The calculation must be—in accordance with Herr Hitler’s theory on propaganda—that if a lie is repeated sufficiently often and with sufficient assurance,, it will not be overtaken by a denial, however authoritative or convincing.

■ Whatever may be true of Germany itself, that is certainly a miscalculation as far„as neutral opinion is concerned. The stringency of the control of arms export by Britain has long been well known abroad and the categorical statement that the Board of trade records showed that no poison gas had been sent to Poland therefore made a profound impression. Equally damaging to neutral credence in the German charge was the statement issued on October 23 by a Swiss Frofessor, whose original diagnosis of the condition of German soldiers he was invited to examine was used by the Nazis to lend versimilitude to the story. Professor Staehelin significantly emphasised that, he had “found no evidence indicating in what circumstances the poisoning had occurred.”—British Official Wireless.