THE SUBTLE WAR BEHIND THE LINES

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 59, 3 December 1917, Page 3

THE SUBTLE WAR BEHIND THE LINES

SPREADING THE POISON LIES.

In the course of a very interesting article which appeared in the August number of the "Saturday Evening Post" (New York), Mary Rinehart, the well-kuowu authoress and journalist, writes of the insidious German propaganda, which tried to paralyse the initity step of America's entry into the world-war.

"After I had been travelling ahout the country for a few weeks" (she says), "I had come to a conclusion there was no getting away from: Germany is still trying quiet methods in this country. What her great army will do when those methods fail Ido not know. What it is doing now, as a part of its work, is to be heard and seen on almost every through train. Pleasant-faced gentlemen in smoking compartments, friendly ladies in dressing-rooms and Pullman chairs, are busily instilling into the more or less receptive minds of a leisurely travelling public, distrust of our Government. Do' you recall that unctuous gentleman who said he was from New Orleans, but whose coat was marked Baltimore, who prefaced his remarks with the statement that he was a loyal American, but " ' Have you not heard the old, old, arguments—of capital forcing this war because it was afraid of the safety of its loans to the Allies? Of Great Britain dragging us in because the British were lying down on their job ? Of big interest who brought on our part in the war for the sake of contracts?

They have all the 3tock arguments, these German spies and propagandists, plus some new ones. But ask them their names and addresses and then, a trifle later, get out your notebook and •iwrite something down—it doesn't matter what. The names and addresses are not important, because they are I false. But watch them stop talking, and observo them furtively scrutinising you afterwards. I have had tjvo women try this with mo, and on one through train in the South I overheard, in'the smoking compartment, one man holding forth to three different audiences. It is insidious poison, for it strikes generally at the good faith of our Alnes. _ How docs. this affect our men in the training camps? I have known it to be tried in only one, but tho' result, with a different sort of men, might have been _ disastrous. From some liidden outside source it began to be impressed on these men that they were\about to face an unbeatable machine. The same stealthy whispers said that the Allies wero already defeated and that <we were to be sacrificed to save the men of France and Great Britain. It circulated figures, wildly exaggerated, as to tho percentage of deaths among officers at the front.

Criiel? It was dastardly. As dastardly as it was totally false. Luckily this was not the new army, ihado .up, as it must of all elements, intelligent and stupid, loyal citizens and others not so loyal. But* it is something to be watched for in the new army. These student officers, most of them, realised that the whole thing was fundamentally false. But it had a certain effect, .for all that. Here and there one found them, toiling as bravely, working as faithfully, preparing witli the others to do better than their best. But also —preparing to die.

I have been frank about this, at the risk of criticism, because something must be done about it. And that something we can do ourselves. Watch these unctuous people who magnify Germany's power and attack our Allies. Watch the men and women who sneer at your own Government and minimise our fighting strength. "Watch the pleasant gentlemen who hate England, and assure you we are fighting her war for her. They may be merely disgruntled Americans, but they are more likely to be something very different.

And—wateli the foreign Press. A part of it ,is loyal; a part of it most certainly is not. It is insidiously disloyal, like my friends of the through trains. If the Government would m;tko one very simple ruling we should, have an easy solution of a perplexing problem, one that tho loyal Press would welcome. That is: Order each newspaper printed in a foreign language in this country to send one copy each day to the Department of Justice; there to be examined by men familiar with the languages 15. which they are printed. Unfair? Not at all. Our everyday Press is subject to supervision. AVhy not these others?

The funeral of the late Miss Ellen Greenwood took place on Saturday morning in the Karori cemetery. The service was conducted at St. Paul's Pro-Cathedral by Bishop Sprott, the Ven. Archdeacon Fancourt, and the Rev. A. M. Johnson, in the presence of a largo congregation. Those present included representatives of the Levin Home, Miss Humphries, Miss D. Pollen, and Miss Morrah, representing tho Alexandra Home (of both of which she was one of the founders); and of the Ladios' Christian Association, with which she had been connected for many years, besides many others who had been connected with Miss Greenwood in the various philanthropic works in which she took, such a kindly and active interest. Bishop Sprott and the Rev. A. M. Johnson officiated at the graveside.

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