The one pleasing feature about the loss of the Italian liner Orazio is that fortunately the casualty list was small, though there must always be regret that so fine a vessel has come to such an end. What is of particular interest is the manner in which the German propaganda machine has seized upon the unhappy incident for the purpose of endeavouring to blacken the French in the eyes of Italy, by suggesting tha: the outbreak on board the Orazio was the result of sabotage committed by sailors of the French search party which had boarded the vessel practically twenty-four hours before. It is a ridiculous story, for the simple reason that the search party would at all times have bern accompanied by officers of the vessel. They most certainly would not have been allowed to roam all over the ship without attendant witnesses, while the idea of one of the French sailors being able to smuggle an infernal machine aboard for the destruction of the ship is equally as foolish. It was natural that the German Propaganda Ministry should try and make as much capital out of the affair as possible and to endeavour to create bad blood between France and Italy, but neither the French nor the Italians are likely to be deceived by such puerile methods, just as the world at large refused to be impressed by the stories which the Germans íssued about the explosion at Munich. It may be that in some directions the propaganda work of the Allies is open to criticism, but that is chiefly due to slowness of operation rather than in other ways. They have found that in the long run the dissemination of truth is the best possible form of propaganda, and in this it is generally admitted in the United States they are excelling. The German lie about the use by the British of gas shells against the Admiral Graf Spee has be: n revealed for what it was by the action of the Uruguayan Government, which has cancelled the certificate of the German doctor who certified that gas had been used, upon an investigation by other medical men which definitely showed the contrary. Ingenuity very often overreaches itself as it did in this case.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.