The Southland Times FRIDAY, AUGUST 4, 1939. Words, Events And “Bad Feeling”

Southland Times, Issue 23887, 4 August 1939, Page 6

The Southland Times FRIDAY, AUGUST 4, 1939. Words, Events And “Bad Feeling”

A GLANCE at the date-line on this morning’s issue of The Southland Times will remind readers that today is the 25th anniversary of Britain’s entry into the Great War. Exactly a quarter of a century has passed since the fateful orders were issued and now, in spite of an almost universal detestation of war, the world has already reached a stage where a new conflict is treated as probable, even though British statesmen insist that it is by no means inevitable. Mr Chamberlain, whose expressed opinions have seldom been pessimistic, made a statement in the House of Commons early this week which revealed a new grimness of outlook. “One must admit,” he said, “that a situation in which an accumulation of weapons of war is going on on so many sides and at such a pace is one which cannot but be regarded with anxiety. Indeed, it is difficult to see what the resolution of this problem can be, unless it is to be resolved by war itself.” He then referred to the “bad feeling” which is being fomented by “poisonous propaganda in the Press and by other means” and expressed a belief that if this “war of words” could be checked and steps could be taken “to restore the confidence of the people in the peaceful intentions of all the States in Europe” there would be no real hindrances in the way to a lasting peace. Truth and Freedom

It is true that the world is flooded today with propaganda, and that a great deal of it is “poisonous.” But the growth of hatred, although perhaps the most ominous feature of the present situation—since it presupposes the approach of a psychological mood in which war might seem not merely bearable, but desirable, by large masses of men—has not been an isolated or artificial experience. If all newspaper comment could be deleted from the records of the past few years the fact would still remain that Germany had seized Bohemia and Moravia and is now attempting to discipline an entire nation with an increasing reliance on harsh measures. It would still be true that the Jews have been persecuted and that the police terror reigns in Germany. No lack of publicity could alter the fact that Japan has invaded China and that thousands of women and children have been destroyed in air raids both in the Far East and in Spain. All these things are in the texture of experience: they are not merely words and rumours to be washed out in a cleansing silence. In other days, when newspapers were unknown, the news of invasion and wars came more slowly; but it came just the same, and aroused the inevitable mood of defiance and resistance. Perhaps the real danger of propaganda is that certain Governments are using it through their Stateowned Press as the instrument of foreign policy. In these circumstances it is more than ever necessary that British newspapers should, be free to tell the truth. Prejudice, exaggeration and misrepresentation may creep into sections of a free Press, but the shape of ’ truth is never really obscured, and in times of crisis it becomes unmistakably clear. To exchange this accessibility to truth for a state of perennial dimness in which no man knows what to believe, and from which might come the sudden appearances of danger, would be a bad bargain for a democratic people., Clearness of vision has penalties as well as values; but blindness is a form of imprisonment. It is better to know and to prepare than to know nothing and fear everything.