A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
IN the various counts against the present administra- tion in Germany none is more damning than the deliberate suppression or distortion of the truth through the operation of the cynically-styled " Ministry of Propaganda and Enlightenment." The Times corre- spondent at Berlin has added one more to the services he is continuously rendering to readers in this country by calling attention to the version broadcast in Germany of a description by Mr. Ward Price in the Daily Mail of the executions of the first two Nazis convicted in Vienna. The report appeared in the Mail of August 1st. On August 4th it was broadcast from all German stations, but with the inclusion of long statements by the victims which Mr. Ward Price himself (who witnessed the executions) declares they never uttered, and various other touches which he entirely repudiates. The tactical advantage of fathering all this on a foreign newspaper is obvious. Whether it is to be regarded as " propaganda " or " enlightenment " is not so obvious. But at least it drives home the fact, which can never be forgotten in relation to Germany today, that the German people is being not only denied the truth but also to no incon- siderable extent fed on lies. The newspapers were, of course, forbidden to publish the report on racialism discussed at the Baptist Congress in Berlin on Wednesday.
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