HIGHLIGHTS from THE CABLES

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 16, 19 January 1940, Page 7

HIGHLIGHTS from THE CABLES

AUSTRALIA TAKES FURTHER STEP FORWARD.

phMARKABLE as has been Ausl\ tralia"s industrial progress during the last decade it seems likely that this will in time jirovc to have l>ooll merely the first faltx-ring footsteps or" an infant destined to grow to giant etaturv. Today's aniKiuneenient of the .*ale of £2,7.>0,000 worth of munitions strengthen* this estimate, and following so soon on the * announcement of the proposal to found an up-to-date motor vehicle manufacturing industry gives eoine. idea of the ambitions of Australia's leading industrialists. This industrialisation across tl*e Tasman inuet have an important effect on New Zealand, and it is fortunate that one of Xew Zealand's Cabinet Ministers should be. visiting the Commonwealth at this time. Mr. Jonee has undoubtedly been impressed with what he ha-s seen and the treatment he has received, and his reports ehould

WHAT REPORTS THE U.S. BELIEVES.

OCARCELY a week passes without the exposure of at least one clumsy blunder by the minions of the clubfooted Nazi propaganda chief (ioebbels. The latest German effort is a report of a speech, alleged to have been made in a secret eeesion of the British Parliament on a date on which no secret session was held. In view of such maltreatment of facts, and sometimes pure inventions, it ie interesting to note to what extent propaganda from the European capitate is believed—or disbelieved —in the greatest of the neutrals, the United States. Believing tlienreelveii to have been well singed by the Allied and Herman propaganda of the first World War, thu sceptical Americans arc. on the whole, reluctant to believe even what the world's most honest Press can li'arn for them about the present war. How they regard war news, even that originating from their own capital, is made rather startlingly plain by the result* of a survey of United States credulity, by the magazine '"Fortune."

make t-hc Xew Zealand Government «ll the mvre responsive to the overtures \vhk*)i Senator Mcßride. the Australian delegate, to the Centennial celebrations, intends to make. Australia seems

(lrt-tinotl to become the United Stale-? of the Southern Pacific, and the more Xew Zealand can foster trade, on a satisfactory basis the more ehe will benelit. It ie significant that the War Cabinet in the Commonwealth lias decided on further expansion of the munitionsmaking industry, and if the war continues for the. three years originally fore<-a>t by the British Government there will lie vast expansion in other directions. The etiimilus of th-> war, both on primary and eecondary production, will no doubt act as a eup?rcliarger and the tempo will increase at a rate that will make the progress of the la<u ten years eeem snail-like in comparison.

The question \va*: '"Do you !x-lie\e. all. most. some, little, or none of the war news items from these cities?"' The answers: — Wash "ton I/don Paris Brin Moscow p.c. p.c p.c p.c. p.<\ All 13.6 1.4 1.3 0.4 0.4 Most ... 3.-1.3 10.0 S.B 2.0 1.7 •S<.m<» ... 32.7 48.5 47.2 2*>.6 2-">.:« Uttle ... 10.3 26.9 27.6 41.1 33.3 None .... 1.9 5.5 5.8 ISO 20.» Dont Know 6.2 7.7 9.3 8.9 17.8 A black mark against the efficiency of (lernian pro|>aganda, says the ne«v magazine ■■Time"' was the fact that 5!l ]kt cent of the United States people believe little or nothing from Berlin Other black murks against Goebbelf' machine, >ay* "Time,"' are:— Only •;.:{ per cent believe the German t-torv that the Athenia was sunk by the British; 03.9 ]ier cent believe that the (Jernian?- deliberately bombed noncombatants in Poland;

22.7 per c<\nt beliexe that revolution ill Gormanv is rife