BASIS OF PROPAGANDA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 August 1939, Page 3

BASIS OF PROPAGANDA

9 CLEAR, FIRM POLICY NEEDED, i | Now, as during the war, the one; essential condition of successful propa-1 ganda is that Britain should have a ; policy so firm, so clear, that none can | mistake it, and so sound that events | will progressively accredit it, writes i Mr Wickham Steed. It must be an of-1 fensive, not a defensive policy. It i should not waste words in denying the | •‘encirclement” of Germany. Rather should it insist that Germany is being encircled —by Hitler. He has cut her off from civilisation, has throttled her trade by “autarky,” has trodden underfoot human freedom and respect for human right. He, like Mussolini, has

' declared war to be the • noblest form )of national activity, and a German i sword, -strong to strike," the only j means of bending the world to the scri vice of a higher “Kultur." Against ■ him. and those who stand with him the I peoples which abhor war must band ■ themselves together. They cannot adi mit that modern means of destruction ! should serve the ethics of the Stone I Age. Therefore they are rearming, and i will shrink from no sacrifice in their | defence of civilisation itself. Toward I the German and Italian peoples, as such, they bear no ill-will. Gladly would they welcome them, as free and equal nations, into full partnership for the promotion of peace in a warlcss world. But they will not suffer the rule of force to prevail against the rule of law.