March 8.
As was expected the bitter comment of the Netherlands' journal "Algemeen Handelsblad" on the subject of wanton German aeroplane attacks on Netherlands' shipping very quickly brought reactions in Germany, and the matter was taken up on Wednesday night by the German broadcast featuring a political re~ view of the past week. Germany, the speaker said, was not willing to put up with the insolent criticism of the German navy, and would not allow anybody to besmirch the honour of its Fuehrer and its forces. The answer to that is that it is not the neutral or Allied commentators who are soiling the German escutcheon, They are merely commenting on a very patent fact, the responsibility for which lies very much closer home. It is to be expected that within a short space of time the German press will be in another state of hysteria over the expression of views which is being made in many countries over the German treatment of neutral shippin; and there is always the possibility that these jodical outbursts may prove to be the obtain that space in American newspapers it would like to secure. The writer says: "The reason for the blunders by the German Government, in so far as export propaganda to the United States is concerned, is not diffi~ ult to trace though it remains difficult to explain, The English language articles. are perfectly suited to the Nazi press in this country (America). Their strident tone,—the anti-Semitism, the "Aryan" me cantations, the deifications of Adolf and all the rest of it—are entirely suited tothe German language "Deutscher Weckruf und Beobachter" of New York, the weekly of the same language in Chicago, the "Weckrui" of Los Angeles and other oficial Nazi organs in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The evident and inane assumption in Berlin must be that if sch material in this form is desir lo copy for these publications, in literal English translation it is equally suitable for the American Press." It is on such assumptions that Germany is going wrong. Domestically abuse of the enemy might suit the German books, but abroad it only inspires an amused disgust, and helps to strengthen the conviction that'even in Germany itself it is but the Government whistling to maintain the courage of a people faced with the disaster of war, and the virtual certainty of defeat. Hence the hysteria,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.