A Glaring Exposure

Southland Times, Issue 24002, 18 December 1939, Page 6

A Glaring Exposure

THE flight of the Admiral Graf Spee into Montevideo harbour has provided a glaring exposure of the crudity of Nazi propaganda methods. After the battle in the South Atlantic the German shortwave radio announced to the world that the pocket battleship was undamaged and had gone to the Uruguayan port merely to refuel. But many thousands of persons must by now have seen • with their own eyes the severe damage that was inflicted by the three British cruisers, and it is being shown to millions more through pictures sent by radio to the newspapers of the United States. These pictures, portraying one of the great news events of the war, will be quickly spread throughout the world; and no doubt they will be followed by cinematograph films depicting even more vividly the extent of the Nazi lie. A message from New York, printed this morning, describes the attitude of the United States people to the German short-wave story as one of “contemptuous hilarity.” “The discount rate of official German statements has always been high,” The New York Times has com-.

mented. “A few more like this and it will close at 100 per cent.” To radio pictures of the Admiral Graf Spee lying damaged at Montevideo has been added a frank statement by the German commander testifying to the havoc which was caused by “powerful shells which exploded after piercing the Graf Spee’s armour.” Captain Langsdorff has admitted that “with the ship holed, many dead and attempts to manoeuvre frustrated he was forced to run for port.” He was, apparently, short of fuel, having failed to make contact with a supply ship, but this fact does not make the German statement anything better than a lie of the grossest kind.

Foolish Lying

This is by no means the first time that Nazi propaganda has been brought into disrepute by foolish lying. It has had German submarines sink British warships which are non-existent, it has had them sink British warships, like the Ark Royal, which are still demonstrably afloat.’ Mr Winston Churchill said a few weeks ago that he would be prepared to engage the whole German Navy using only those British warships which have been falsely reported sunk since the outbreak of war. The British authorities have not been slow to expose the Nazis’ lies, and they have done it very neatly—by inviting, for .instance, a prominent member of the United States diplomatic service to dine on board the Ark Royal some days after this aircraft-carrier was supposed to be at the bottom of the sea. Britain, for her part, has fulfilled her undertaking to give the world the truth. Naval losses, however grave, have been published promptly; casualty lists have not been concealed. The contrast between the two propaganda methods has been such that although Germany began the war (as in .1914) with the advantage of a vast and efficient organization she has in a few months lost the confidence of all but the most ignorant or prejudiced neutrals. Once again the Germans have failed to realize that propaganda, to be effective, must march in step with truth, and that the dissemination of false news which can be shown to be false, and the suppression of truths which inevitably leak out later will quickly recoil on the heads of those who resort to them.