WAR TOPICS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 3, Issue 288, 28 March 1941, Page 7

WAR TOPICS

The Beacon

DIFFICULTIES OF NEWS GETTING FALSE STRUCTURE When the true story of conditions in totalitarian countries now. obscured by a fog of propaganda is laid bare, "the .whole false structure will be revealed, and crushed," according to Arthur Hays Sulzberger, publisher of the New York Times Mr Sulzberger, in an address at the Founders Day Celebration at the Carnegie Institute characterised American news correspondents abroad as defenders of the unity and strength of this nation against foreign ideas implanted by the new and deadly weapon of propaganda (says the Christian Science Monitor).

"Most of Europe is in the depths of a news black-out," Mr Sulzberger declared. "Most of Europe's peoples know only what their rulers decide they shall know. For these rulers words are weapons and truth is merely a matter of convenience. "Yet in the long history of men, security has never been attained by a refusal to slate or face the facts, and so there may be hope that when finally the truth pierces the fogs of propaganda over there, the whole false structure will be revealed and crushed. Have Not Succeeded. "Moreover, despite the formidable efforts of these rulers to blight the news sources within their lands and to block the news channels leading out, they have not succeeded. This nation knows what is the way of lif<> in the total state, and knowing it, Ave are stirred to safeguard the democratic way. Wc know how the poison has been injected into other lands, and., knowing it, wc are on guard. We know what are the aims of the dictators, and forewarned, we are forearming."

Propaganda has become one of Germany's first-line weapons, Mr Sulzberger declared.

"With propaganda, truth has been destroyed and falsehood glorified," he continued. "With propaganda, discord has been sown and strong men have become weak. The pen has truly been mightier than the sword. Yet against each weapon sooner or later we find a defence — armour for arrow, masks for poisoned gas, stronger weapons of offence to make unusable earljer tools of destruction, and against the weapon of propaganda our only defence is a free and responsible Press.

"Make no mistake about the danger, It is not the choice of our interventionists or our isolationists that will determine the future. Countries have been swept off the map for doing far less than we are doing to these self-appointed Lords Spiritual and Lords Temporal of the world. It is the strength of England that now protects us. And who are Ave to spealc of England's ability to hold out ?

"Do not let the daily repetition of events delude you into the belief that something more startling must happen before the peril to us becomes acute." Mr Sulzberger held it the duty of newspapers to give the facts to the public as nearly as they can tie liad. Truth is Strength. "For democracy," he said, "can be strong only if it is informed and truth alone can defeat the weapon of propaganda. It is our task to keep open for you the channels of information —to keep them open and unpolluted so that the unity and strength of our nation are not impaired by the introduction of foreign ideas implanted by this new and deadly weapon so skilfully employed by Dr. Goebbels.

"Yet it has not been easy to gather and present the facts upon which these fateful judgments are based. Our correspondents abroad have had to surmount difficulties of all kinds

and all degrees, ranging from censorship through mental and physical discomfort all the way to acute personal danger.

"There has never been a war in which the obstacles-for the reporter

(Continued foot of next column.)

were so great as in the present one. In the World War, correspondents were permitted considerable freedom of action and were allowed to collect a large amount of material lor themselves, Noav correspondents are to a great degree limited to official statements and when they try to see for themselves thev are block-

eel by official order, or else conducted in a manner which guarantees that they observe only what it is desired they shall observe."