Voices on the Air
Mr. Duff Cooper has made so admirable a beginning as Minister of Information, and his own frequent broadcasts have so effectively met the needs of the particular occasion, that the debate on the Ministry in the House of Commons on Tuesday was marked much more by constructive suggestion than by hostile criticism. Mr. Noel Baker emphasised the importance of maintaining every endeavour to reach the German people by wireless, and the Minister in reply said there were two messages to be got across to the silent, crushed, anti-Nazi minority in German ; one was that when Hitler was defeated they should have their full share in the prosperity of a new and better Europe, the other that in the end Germany must inevitably be defeated, and that therefore the sooner peace came the better for Germany. The second suggestion seems prompted by rather questionable psychology. In less than three weeks the German armies have overrun the whole of Holland and Belgium and established themselves deep in France. It may be true, as we are convinced it is, that in the end Allied • endurance will prevail. But is this a moment in which any British spokesman could hope to persuade the most violent anti-Nazi that Germany is on the way to losing the war? Or would German listeners merely write off his credibility? Our propaganda must be elastic and intelligent, and its directors should recognise first and foremost that all arguments cannot be profitably used at all times. Words must be chosen to fit the particular occasion.
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