SUBTLE METHOD.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 153, 29 June 1940, Page 9

SUBTLE METHOD.

NAZI PROPAGANDA.

Use Of Bribery. Lies, Threats And Promises. i MORAL WEAKNESSES FOUND. Itritish Official Wireless. (Received 2 p.m.) RUGBY, June 28. The journal "Economist," in an article on Nazi propaganda, says its aim never varies, namely, the forwarding of Germany's power. The content varies according to the group under attack, and the technique has as many forms as it has victims, but the appeal is invariably launched at a substantial level. After analysing the method by which in its early days the Nazi movement played off one group against another, subtly enlisting both in a. temporary alliance against a weaker third, so that almost without a blow Hitler undermined German society before he captured it, the article goes on: "There is bitter analogy between Nazi propaganda and Nazi mechanised columns nosing their way along enemy lines, thrusting here and there to find a weak spot in the defence, and once a weak spot is discovered, concentrating all power, strength and venom on that particular point, bursting through and spreading out behind the gap they have created.

"So, with their propaganda there is not a body politic in the world whose spiritual defences are not being felt and tested by the Nazi propaganda machine. Weak spots'treachery, cowardice, avarice, or honest prejudice are carefully marked. At the appointed time, flying columns of bribery, lies, threats and promises are launched and the bridgehead falls."

The Nazis work to create an atmosphere in which the -submerged phobias and fears can be brought to the surface, and there guided towards the desired cud. They play on prejudice, increase distrust, whisper suspicions and sow doubt. They act as a discordant force on the principle of faith and honest conviction.

The Nazis probably secured their easiest triumphs by exploiting human vice and weakness. The article instances been powerfully aided by bribing important business men into profitable but illegal operations, and then using the threat of exposing this illegality to turn the frightened industrialists into Nazi agents.

Dissatisfied ambition has also played an important part, since there were men in every country who prefer a position of quasi-authority under German rule to obscurity under their own national Government. Most horrifying, however, in view of this writer, is the skilful exploitation by the Nazis of those divisions of opinion and interest which are produced by honest conviction. The most obvious and striking example is the way Hitler has been able to use for his own purposes at one and the same time his hatred of capitalism, on the one hand, and fear of Communism on the other.