PROPAGANDA VALUES

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20638, 19 August 1941, Page 9

PROPAGANDA VALUES

USE IN WAR AND PEACE NOW A MIGHTY WEAPON A talk on propaganda as it applied to both peace and war was given by Dr. R. M. Gunn at to-day’s luncheon held by the Gisborne Rotary Club. The value of propaganda as a weapon was not widely realised until the last war, Dr. Gunn said, although Napoleon knew its worth. During the last war Allied propaganda secured some brilliant successes in America, and in the latter part of the war was so decisive on the Continent that the Germans blamed their downfall to subversive elements in their midst, one German maintaining that “England’s campaign of lies was one of the most effective weapons against us.” The use Goebbels made of propa- ! ganda and its effect in the present 1 war were too paintful to dwell upon. 1 Propaganda was held to be insidious and underhand and addressed to emotions, to promote the interests of those who contrived it rather than of those to whom it was addressed. An important essential was repetition, in which statements at first appearing ludicrous were eventually believed. It must contain a kernel of truth and to be most effective should be centred round a slogan, such as the use to which Allied propaganda in the last war put “a scrap of paper” and “the contemptible little army.” Another important feature was that it should be so clothed that it should never be realised as propaganda. Very often propaganda was used in salesmanship and Dr. Gunn referred to matter issued in regard to some patent medicines which referred to the symptoms rather than the disease, which might easily be in a remote part of the body from which the sympton was felt. A hearty vote of thanks was extended to Dr. Gunn for his talk, and in moving it Mr. J. E. Shimmin drew laughter from the audience, and from Dr. Gunn, as well, by congratulating the speaker upon “the able way in which you put over your propaganda.” Mr. L. Grey Barton presided at the gathering.