MANAWATU DAILY TIMES SATURDAY, JUNE 29, 1918. DECEPTION AS AN ART.

Manawatu Times, Volume XL, Issue 13925, 29 June 1918, Page 4

MANAWATU DAILY TIMES SATURDAY, JUNE 29, 1918. DECEPTION AS AN ART.

The Austrians, whose propaganda was partly the cause of the Italian disaster last year, have been carrying on the same work industriously during their occupation of the invaded Italian provinces. A cable published on Tuesday mentioned that Austrian soldiers dressed In Italian uniforms and speaking Italian, had been sent into the Italhis ranks for the purpose of causing disaffection. For a long time this propaganda was directed against the British, but the fact that British troops in large numbers wore fighting for Italy naturally discounted these attempts to create hostility, and #ie Austrians then turned their attention, to creating suspicion of America’s motives in entering the war. Pamphlets, manifestoes, and newspapers have been dropped by Austrian airmen, over the Italian lines, blown there by trench mortars, or left, in visible heaps in No Man’s Land at night. Large notices displayed f: un Austrian trenches, have invited the Italian soldiers to “Gome and get our news; everything we tell you is always very interesting. We never hide the truth.” They arc also told that Ante-

rica’s real aim is economic supremacy in Europe, that the Americans make war to make money, and that “Wilson’s pockets arc already bulging with English gold.’’ Italians in the United States are, however, taking steps to c.n.abat this propaganda. They propose io do so by the use of the chain letter —• the lirst and only instance, we may remark, of this odd device being put to a really useful purpose. The Italian Ambassador in Washington, some little time ago, invited his fellow-countrymen in the States to write to their friends and relatives in Italy, stating America’s real aims. The receiver in each case was to bo asked to repeat the message by letter. By May 24th it was announced. 100,000 letters, “just to start the chain,’’ would have been posted. Their effect may be all that is hoped, for in the Italian Army there are thousands of men who have worked in the States, to the benefit of their families at home, and this message from American-Italians will drop on fruitful soil in many Italian homes.