JIBE AT BRITONS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23429, 19 August 1939, Page 15

JIBE AT BRITONS

GERMAN PROPAGANDA "BULLET-PROOF VESTS" CEASELESS ACTIVITY SUCCESS OF CAMPAIGN By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright LONDON, Aug. 12 Showing "anxious Englishmen, wearing bullet-proof bowler hats and vests," a popular Berlin newspaper is featuring a series of "1 Come From England" photographs. Even Englishmen residing in Gei'many are liable to get a distorted view of the world as a result of the ceaseless and immense anti-British Nazi propaganda. One example of this is the Nationalzeitung's statement that Australia would desert Britain in wartime, says the Times, reviewing. the effects of this propaganda since Munich. "Every publicity medium (it states) is utilised to convince Germans who have a natural liking for Britons that the Nazi view of Britain is true. Anti-British "News" "Dr. Goebbels, the Propaganda Minister, has largely succeeded, because the public now calls foreign journalists 'well poisoners' and accepts the viewpoint that Britain is degenerate and is enlisting French, Polish and Russian assistance to encircle Germany. "The hundreds of Nazi journalists abroad uniformly send even the flimsiest anti-British news. For example, if the most obscure Shanghai vernacular newspaper declares that Britain is collapsing, it is glaringly reproduced throughout Germany, alongside startling Empire 'news,' such as that Canada and South Africa are quitting the Empire." Propagandas' Error The Times continues: —"The propagandists erred by uxoitedly exaggerating the scale of -the first British bombers' flight over France, thereby reversing the previous propaganda that Britain did not possess a good air force. "Dr. Goebbels endeavoured to make amends by not referring to the subsequent flights and by publishing scornful cartoons. "The newspapers continue adequately to • reproduce British statesmen's speeches, but they interlard comments throwing doubt on them." The article concludes by saying that it should not bo difficult to convince Germans,- in the event of war, that Britain was wholly responsible.

APPiEAL BY CHURCHES (Received Auiyust 18, 5.5 p.m.) GENEVA, Aug. 17 The World Alliance of Christian Churches has called on the Powers to call a world conference as the only escape from war chaos.