LORD NORTHCLIFFE'S PROPAGANDA.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17610, 13 November 1922, Page 4

LORD NORTHCLIFFE'S PROPAGANDA.

Mr Artemus Jones, K.C., prospective Liberal candidate for Macclesfield, ip the course of a speech recently made an interesting 'reference to the German view of the late Lord Northcliffe's propaganda work in the war. He said he had just spent a few weeks in various parts of Germany, and ho was in Berlin at the time of Loud Northcliffe'a funeral. A distinguished officer in the German Plying Corps explained to him the reasons why the Germans felt bo bitterly against Lord i Northcliffe. The Military Party-, in Germany ascribed their defeat entirely to the breaking down of the moral of the German soldiers, which they attributed to Jjord Northcliffe's propaganda. Leaflets dropped from aeroplanes into the German trenches contained! photographic reproductions of letters written by German prisoners of war in England "to their relatives in Germany which described the excellent food they had in England. At this period the rations of the German soldiers had got much worse, and so incredible were the, ! statements in their eyes that they laughed at the leaflets as obvious lies'. ' When the Fifth Army was driven back, however,, the German Army captured canteens so stocked with food and drink that the soldiers saw that the statements in the leaflets were true. 1 According to his informant, this news flashed like fire along tho whole length of the German trenches, and gradually through Germany the belief grew that England, after three years and a-lialf of fighting, possessed food supplies that would enablo her to hold out indefinitely. The psychological effect of Lord Northcliffe's propaganda in these circumstances was profound, and, according to the German officer, it was' the point which turned the tide of battle. "It was ilot your politicians that ■vyoin the war," added the officer, "but the effect of Lord Northcliffe's propaganda." It was only just, added Mr Artemus Jones, that this remarkable tribute to the war work of the great journalist should be made known.