PROPAGANDA IN WAR

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 139, 8 March 1941, Page 15

PROPAGANDA IN WAR

“The Fifth Arm (Some Call it Propaganda),” by Wickham Steed. (London : Constable.)

Mr. Steed’s purpose is to urge the need for an enterprising and highlyorganized department or body of men to handlb the propaganda (“the weapon cf the mind for the battle of wits or, on a higher plane, the sword of the spirit for the war of faiths”) of the British side in the present struggle. This, he says, is a war of faiths. Either that of Hitler and his satellites or that of the British people and their allies must in the end prevail.

"If ours be not worthier and more inspiring than that of Hitler and his Nazis we shall not triumph. '. . . We' may match physical force with physical force, personal courage with personal courage, mechanical weapon with mechanical weapon, and fighting skill with fighting skill. Yet even success in arms might not bring the triumph we must win—in order not to lose the peace once more after victory on sea,' in the air or in the field—unless our spiritual front be stronger than that of Nazi Germany, unless our faith 'be firmer and loftier than hers, and unless we spread it by means superior to those which she employs.”

Recalling the success of the propaganda organization which functioned under the guidance of Lord Northcliffe in the lirfter stages of the last war, Mr. Steed advocates the prosecution of a vigorous offensive along the same lines. To make that possible he urges first a clear statement of the nation’s war policy. The purpose of the nation’s “Fifth Arm," he says, must be to state the purposes for which Britain fights and convince the world thart they are absolutely genuine.