WARFARE BY LEAFLET
SIR,—Your article on " Warfare by Leaflet " is a welcome attempt, after a month of war, to estimate the effectiveness of British propaganda. Since Germans are unable to read English newspapers, the Blue Book or the speeches of British spokes- men, they can know the British case only from the R.A.F. leaflets or from news bulletins and talks arranged by the B.B.C. One has, the impression that in each of these categories there has been some effective propaganda, but not enough. The Prime Minister's words to the German nation were perhaps in the circumstances the most effective propaganda available ; they would probably get the attention of a German interested or courageous enough to procure a leaflet or to keep the wire- less on against orders. (There is some evidence that many still do this.) By the same test, other of our leaflets were bad propaganda. If we were Germans, we should not be impressed by mere denunciation of Hitler or assertions of superiority in food and war material, nor by a B.B.C. talk in which a distin- guished public man put a rough-and-ready statement of the British case in stumbling German.
We can surely do much better than this. A friend of mine listened the other night to both German and English stations. From ours he heard two identical news bulletins, from theirs news followed by an account of the Allied treatment of Germany in 1919. German listeners last Tuesday thought the translation of the first half of the Archbishop of York's speech more likely to be effective than any of our leaflets. For most Germans who can hear the B.B.C., threats are silly, snap generalisations are ineffective ; informed and cogent argument in the thing that will tell in the long run. And for this we need the best experts. Why should we not also seek the help of the most distinguished Germans in the country, so that both the facts and their presentation may be as good as the best men can make them? The German case in this war rests on an indoctrinated version of the history of the last twenty years. We shall not get the British case across unless we can present a different version of that history.
Perhaps, too, we might consider the fact that similar talks in English are badly needed. Such things as German militarism or Hitler's rise to power are not Mysteries or wilful acts, but historical phenomena that can be explained and understood. Ignorance is a bad basis for either propaganda or peace — Yours faithfully, Witz G. MOORE. St. john Baptist College, Oxford. SIR,—I have read, with much interest, the article "Warfare by Leaflet " in your last issue. Written, as it obviously is, by one who has personal knowledge of Germans and Germany, it stresses the vital importance of presenting the truth in such a manner that it will appeal to the German man-in-the-street. But the article is only destructive of the present attempts to do tuffs. Will not the writer of the article become constructive by writing a leaflet which, in his opinion, would have the desired effect? And, further, would you, Sir, consider the suggestion of offering a prize for the best leaflet for this pur- pose? If this were done, I imagine that only those with a real knowledge of present-day Germany would compete, amongst whom there would doubtless be, as has been sug- gested elsewhere, some German refugees now resident in this country who have fled from persecution.—Faithfully yours, Iris Court, Pangbourne, Berks. ALFRED W. BATCHELOR.
[Our correspondent may have seen from last week's Spectator that we had anticipated his suggestion.—En. The Spectator.]
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