NAZI PROPAGANDA DILEMMA.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 62, Issue 6, 18 October 1941, Page 4

NAZI PROPAGANDA DILEMMA.

German war communiques are now first of all propaganda. The flaming rhetoric, the blazing figures, the radio trumpets and the music are all primarily! addressed to morale on the home front. If public morale lives on official communiques, then the German people should be sitting on top of the world, with a million Russian prisoners and three times as many Russians killed or wounded. But then again, is it the very best kind of propaganda for Hitler’s cause in the United States? And in Berlin they are giving much anxious thought to the United States. Ever since Russia’s wholly unexpected stand against the Nazi armies American isolationists have been saying that now more than ever we have no reason to be afraid of Hitler. The story of Napoleon in Russia is being re-enacted, and Americans have every reason to keep cool in the matter of taxes, Army service, foreign bases, everything. But what becomes of this argument if Hitler announces that with moderate Gorman losses he has destroyed four million Soviet soldiers in dead, wounded or prisoners ? If the Nazi military machine is doing better than ever in Russia, how can American fears be lulled? If the price paid in German lives has really been small, as Hitler says, he has succeeded in setting a new world’s record in wholesale slaughter for any comparable period. But do people recall Hitler’s reason why he was compelled to turn against Russia? He was convinced that Stalin was making ready to jump on Germany’s back as soon as she was seriously occupied elsewhere. How much danger was there for Germany from an enemy whom Hitler, with only very moderate losses, can clean up to the extent of four million dead, wounded and prisoners in six weeks?