GERMANY CALLING

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 76, 31 March 1939, Page 9

GERMANY CALLING

WORLD BROADCASTS

USE jF PROPAGANDA

TWENTY-FOUR HOURS

"Dear friends and listeners oversea.," says an effusively friendly voice *hrougb the loudspeaker. There is hardly need for it to add, in that faintly guttural English, "This is Germany calling."

By .night and day, with scarcely a break throughout the twenty-four hours, the German short-wave station at Zeesen—said to have cost £1,000,000 —is pumping out programmes to the world, with announcements and news in English, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, and, of course, German, writes L. M. Gander in the "Daily Telegraph." Germany was early in the field with foreign language broadcasts, beginnihg in 1934, and the 8.8.C. followed suit only in January;last year. When the short-wave transmissions from Zeesen were, launched, it was stated in official German quarters that they were intended for people of German origin throughout the world. One need look no further than the much-quoted "Mem Kampf" for motives. In that work Herr Hitler makes plain his deep-rooted belief in propaganda, and freely acknowledges the superiority of the Allied methods during the ■ war. TOday, on all printed programmes distributed to the Press of the world by the German short-wave stations appears the declaration, attributed to the'Fuhrer: "We wish to safeguard the eternal foundations of our existence, of our nationality, and the strength and virtues with which it is endowed." HOW -NEWS IS COMPILED. Any British listener may hear for himself the evidence of Germany's immense broadcasting effort. For example, at 5 a.m. daily, Greenwich time, half a dozen transmitters at Zeesen begin broadcasts to Africa, Southern and Eastern Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. At midnight the same chorus is turned on the Americas. What, then, is Germany telling the world with such characteristic thoroughness, and what is its effect on the scattered audience? The favourite method of the compilers of the Zeesen bulletins is to comb the newspapers of the world and to quote carefully-selected extracts. For instance, one day quotations were read from an Arab newspaper to the effect that the object of the Palestine Con- • ference in London was to strengthen Britain's grip on the Orient and the Arab States. "Britain," the article went on, "intends to show the' world that she is master in the Orient and plans to throw the apple of discord . among the representatives of the Arab States.in London. Various questions, apart from the Palestine issue, are to be raised in order to set off one party against another." The report in a London newspaper that the Jews in Palestine. threatened an armed revolt if the conference failed was mentioned one day. As a departure from this method, another bulletin contained some isolated sentences to the effect that on the occasion of a religious festival "an unfortunate invalid Arab was hanged. He was condemned to.death because an old rifle was found in his possession." Reports from French newspapers of Anarchist atrocities in Catalonia have been freely quoted, and I have heard • lengthy extracts read from criticisms of 8.8.C. news bulletins published in a London newspaper. .; DENUNCIATION OF JEWS. More direct methods are used to , castigate the Jews and the Spanish "Reds," though lately there has been a ; lull in the attacks on the Jews. I heard a talk one morning on Spain devoted ( largely to an account of the ruthless- , ness of the "Jewish" inquisitor Tor- 1 quemada. who, the speaker said, had j caused the death of thousands of innocent Aryans. Denunciation of the , Jews for anti-German "conspiracies" , has occurred frequently. 1 Zeesen had turned its verbal guns, on to Washington, which the an- j nouncer chose to describe as the centre ] of a world-war agitation. "These attacks ; on the authoritarian States," he con- i tinued, "are intended to counter-balance < the Boleshevik defeat in Spain." On j the whole, however, Zeesen broadcasts ] are not violent in tone, and the pro- j paganda pill is sugar-coated. There < are no outspoken attacks on Britain or j the democracies. But in the. news < bulletins and talks political bias is very < apparent. Making due allowances'for national i tendencies, there is ; nothing very j remarkable in the choice of contents for the bulletins from Zeesen. Recently t they have consisted chiefly of accounts i of the rout of the "Reds" in Catalonia; t difficulties in the disposal of Spanish t refugees; reported atrocities by the t Spanish "Reds," and attempts by the s Russians to send in arms and muni- € tions; allusions to German industrial 1 activity, and so on. News bulletins form only a fraction c it the Zeesen output.. Concerts, s musical programmes 'of all kinds, and r radio drama, including Shakespeare | and detective plays, and German lan- r guage lessons .are also broadcast. I c heard a discussion the other day designed to advertise the facilities r offered at Munich University for s foreign students. Particular emphasis was laid on the statement that absolutely free expression bf thought was allowed in debates at the International ! Students' Club. "Many of our * listeners may not be aware that free f and frank discussion really exists in f Germany today," observed the com- t pere. INGRATIATING STYLE. r The German announcers speak ex- I tremely fluent English, but adopt an \ ingratiating, almost gushing style c which falls a little uneasily on English c ears. Some of them have an Aus- c tralian accent. On the other hand, t Zeesen is much more intimate and per- a sonal in its methods than the 8.8.C, E and it may be that the British pro-gramme-makers could learn something s on this score. Overseas listeners are encouraged to write to Zeesen; their « letters are quoted, their names men- r tioned, and their questions answered at t the microphone. Americans towns have c special programmes dedicated to them, t But nobody- who has listened regu- \ larly to German short-wave broad- r\ casting can fail to wonder whether it i is producing results commensurate with c the effort and expenditure. The c instincts of the impartial listener must, l I should think, inevitably lead him to j the bulletin which, both in composition and presentation, shows the smallest t traces of prejudice and suppression, c Judged by these standards, I find the s 8.8.C. bulletins incomparably better, f and my preference applies not only to a the 8.8.C, bulletins in English, but also r to thqse in German. f