CLUMSY ATTEMPTS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20137, 5 January 1940, Page 8

CLUMSY ATTEMPTS

NAZI INNUENDO

; CONFUSING OPINION ATHENIA INQUIRY FORECASTS OF REPORTS SUGGESTED FINDINGS (El«c. Tel. Copyright—United Press Assn.) {British OJlicinl Wireless.) ! Reed. 1.40 p.m. RUGBY, dan. 4. Vigorous attempts are being made by the German propaganda machine | to confuse opinion b.v anticipating the J findings of tne commission now sitting in Washington inquiring into the Athenia incident. By misleading excerpts from United States statements which purport to represent intelligent forecasts of the commission's report, and which may appear favourable to well-known German ideas, these are given publicity in the obvious hope that they will be taken as the actual and final conclusions of the commission. | The implications ol' much of the ■ German propaganda are that the com- ! mission's verdict already has been | published. An example of this propa- | ganda is a passage in Lire Berliner i Borsen-Zeitung, oiled in the transocean wireless "news" to-day, “Nothing throws more light on England’s position in the Athenia case than the fact that, faced with the results of the American investigation, it is unable to find the smallest arguj inent in its own favour.” stated the ! German broadcast. Significance Suggested In similar vein is the clumsy endeavour to throw doubt on the integrity of the Reuter Agency in the words: "Significant is the attempt oj Reuter’s to weaken the Washington verdict.” a sentence which again implies that the report has been issued. Official quarters in London content themselves with observing that impartiality in the investigation in Washington will remain unaffected by the German misrepresentation, adding: "The public elsewhere than in Gerj many, where the truth is subject to | import, restrictions, will be wise to i await the actual and official concle- ! sions of the commission.” | Torpedoed by a German submarine lon September 4 the British .liner | Athenia, of 13,581 tons, with 1400 pasj sengers and crew, including Ameri- | cans, sank in the North Atlantic. 200 j miles west of the Hebrides, off the west coast of Scotland. The Athenia. i which was taking Canadians and Americans home from Europe, had left Liverpool for Quebec and Montreal. She radioed the Admiralty at 4 a.m. that she had been torpedoed.