Oct, 19.
In this war, like the last, five campaigns are being fought, the first on land, the second on the sea, the third under the sea, the fourth in the'air, and the fifth over every possible means of communication known to man. With regard to the first four the situation is entirely satisfactory to the Allies, though there will naturally be some question regarding the sinking of Royal Oak at Scapa Flow, for while it might have been possible to penetrate the anchorage, as one message suggests by following in' the wake of a British ship, the question naturally arises as to how' the enemy submarine succeded in getting out again without a similar guide. But it is the propaganda campaign with which this article concerned. In this department the Germans are showing a great deal of activi! and certainly, up to the present, have control of the initiative. The difference between the presentation of claims by the Allies and the Germans is characteristic of the two sides. In the case of the former guarded allegations of success are made, while in the latter any old story is good so long as it praises Germany's feats at arms, Cases might be quoted in demonstration of the point. When shortly after the outbreak of the war British aeroplanes raided the German fleet at Wilhelmshaven the British Admiralty claimed that certain damage was done to a German pocket battleship, based not on the man who dropped the bomb, but on the statements of the pilot of the vessel following him. It was the feat of one man testified to by another, and it is in~ teresting to note that, while the British Admiralty merely claimed that a pocket battle ship had been hit, the German Government came out with a denial that the Gneisenau had been harmed. That vessel is not the only pocket battleship; the inference to be drawn from the denial is obvious, and one which corroborates the story of the airman who gave evidence of the success of his colleague. Similarly, Allied reports of the sinking of German submarines are equally guarded. In some instances the underwater vessel has been forced to the surface and its destruction plain for all men to See; in many others submarines have been depth-bombed in circumstances in which it could mot be reasonably expected that the vessel attacked could possibly survive.
The existence of the peradventure of a doubt, the desire to give the German naval command as little information as possible necessitates this reticence, but the fact of the substantial reduction in the mortality amongst Allied merchant ships is sunicient proof that very considerable damage has been done to the German U-boat fleet, British losses have been announced with complete candour. Military reasons may at times require "that the announcements should be withheld for a time, but up to the present they have been made with a promptness which suggests that all the probabilities of the Allied versions being correct must be awarded them, The loss of Courageous and Royal Oak was in each case announced promptly. There was no necessity for withholding from the British people the damage which had thus been sustained, simply because the British are a people who can take a reverse, and because there is the completest confidence existing between he Government and the people. It is not the same in Germany. Herr Hitler's very existence depends upon the maintenance on his people in a fairyland of alleged repeated success. The sinking of Courayeus was not enough. Successes have come fast and frequent for Herr Hitler purpose, and if they cannot be achieved in po fact, they must at least be scored in fiction, ind it must be admitted that in fiction Herr Hitler is winning all along the line. Consequently Ark Royal has to be destroyed over the German radio and in the German Press. If it were not Ark Royal, then it has to be Glorious; if not her, why not Furious? The sinking of Royal Oak was not sufficient. Why not, like the generous butcher, put the thumb' on the seales and throw in Repulse for extra' weight? Indeed the rate at which German subuiirines, und aeroplanes are alleged in German fiction to be destroying British war vessels is such that at the present rate the British capital ships on the seas at the moment will be destroyed within the course of a week of Then will come the strain on the German propaganda organ. With no. more British flcet—because it will have been wiped out by the facile minds, which accept the doctrine that it is only necessary to lie enough to have the lie accepted,—what will it do to explain the continuance of the wat'?
The fact of the matter is that German propaganda is making German warfare mutch: too successful. It cannot help itself. It was able to satiate the people with tories in Poland, with the assistance oF Germany's Communistic colleague, M. Stall and a tempo has been set which simply' to be maintained. It is very much the case of a success a day keeping dictatorial downfall at bay. At the present rate of the German propaganda campaign this war should be ended within a very few weeks fat the utmost. That is surely what the {German populace confined within the limits For that country, denied access to anything but the Government's version of what is happening, can do nothing else but expect. They do not know the facts, for it is against the interest of the clique which holds them in bondage that they should know. The picture of German soldiers not realizing they were at war until they were captured by the French may be something of an exaggeration, but it is no overstatement to allege that the German people are not llewed to realize the seriousness of their position, and are being spoonfed with fairy tales thinner than gossamer itself 0 far as substantial truth ig concerned, There is however, nothing to fear from German propaganda. Outside Germany. it deludes one; there are foo many neutral news agencies watching this war for the truth to be long hidden, Censorship itself cannot suppress the truth for all time, as perience has proved times out of number, and while the German Government can prevent its people arriving at a realization of the facts for the time being, even it cannot prevent the drawing of the only possible deductions from the fact that despite all these alleged successes, and those which may be untruthfully claimed in the future, an early end will not have been put to the war. German propaganda abroad deceives no one} so many cross-checks exist; at home it is leading the German people' in the direction of a mirage, and when that phantasy fades away,' what then will happen
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.