PROPAGANDA AS A WAR WEAPON

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume LXIV, Issue 6578, 20 October 1939, Page 2

PROPAGANDA AS A WAR WEAPON

advent of wireless has made the use of propaganda a very "valuable weapon in war time and no nation has made as much use of it as Germany. The trouble with propaganda of a misleading or'untiuthful nature is that the task of carrying on from one untruth to* another leads r,he announcer into a maze of falsehood. Germany apP< j :;rs to have lost the services of 1 r. Goebbels, the star propagandist. about whose arrest there have been such conflicting rumours. Aii English writer discussing the question of war propaganda makes the statement that to be successful propaganda must be truthful. In the past propaganda of a very untrutliful nature has been swallowed bait and hook by the German people. Unfortunately untrutliful propaganda has been very successful on many occasions, because the German people have been pleased to bear the untruths. If the writer seated that welcome propaganda fdways succeeded it would be neerer the truth. In the long run false propaganda must fall to the ground, but it can serve its purpose for so.ne time. The following lCiiiarks on Ihe use of propaganda in Hie first week of the war are of interest: "Propaganda is an powerful, almost a decisive Aveapon, if the soil on which the seed cf -ruth is to be sown has been devoid of that crop for some time. Successful propaganda must be truthful and therefore a hard task confronts Dr. Goebbels, but onr Ministry of Information has a uni-

que opportunity. There is very little Dr. Goebbels can tell is we don't.know already, and I am confident tha;t the British Government will not attempt to keep' bad news from our people. To give out bad news if it comes our way, 0 s it is bound to do from time to time, is to make it into good news, for people feel they can trust a government which trusts them. We believe our newsgivers. A large number of Germans don't believe a word they hear from Dr. Goebbels. If he tells them the truth, they assume he is lying; if he tells them a lie, they believe the contrary to be true. " The, Home Front in Germany ir s the weak spot and the Nazis kli; w it. They know we know it auu hence they are making desperate efforts hermetically to seal up Germany. It can's be done. 'Nevertheless it would be a profound m : stake to suppose that we can or should place exaggerated hopes on a speedy collapse of the German Home Front."