24 MARCH 1939, Page 14

How tremendous, for instance, must have been the effect of

the Prime Minister's speech of March t7th ! Those severe but simple sentences must have echoed as a gong of warning in all German hearts. This, as I have said before, is the main justification of Munich. It will be impossible for any propaganda office either in Berlin or Rome to convince the German and Italian peoples that Mr. Chamberlain is a man of war. The peoples of the whole world are convinced that the words of this eminent civilian are the utterance of a determined pacifist ; when he asserts that he is prepared to defend human liberty by force they well know that aggres- sion cannot come from him. Herr Hitler, as we learn from Mein Kampf, is well aware of the, potency of democratic propaganda. In the ordeal which now faces us it is the surest weapon which we possess ; our case is unanswerable ; we should embark immediately upon organised world propa- ganda; an immediate and efficient Ministry of Propaganda would be worth all the balloon barrages in Christendom. It is our major offensive.