PAN-GERMAN WORLD PROPAGANDA

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 306, 14 September 1918, Page 13

PAN-GERMAN WORLD PROPAGANDA

GLIMPSE OF A POWERFUL INTRIGUING COTERIE UNSCRUPULOUS AND DETERMINED .During the '"Terror", of the' French Keyolution,' Hpbespierro and S.t: ■ >lU9t .never had more than '30jOOO ihen.be-. hind them; yet this small body.sufficed -to hold-up the whole of France,, because/they knew'.what they «'anted,ftud were '.'. absolutely unscrupulous. -Tho' position of the Pan-Germans to-day is rather similar. They number inoro than 30,000, of course; but-probably they £-re hot really numerous. Tho Pan-Gormnn. League before- the war had only 40,000 iiiemliers, and though they now possess other organisations—the Navy League, General Keim's Wchrverein, Prqfesoor Sehafer's Independent Committee for aGerman, Peace, Admiral von .Tiipity/s' Fatherland-Party—the same, people, appear'in illfj.' aiul-.pull all' tho-■ -strings. Their pon'er. consists in three things:They' know what they want, they aroab-; solutely unscrupulous—witness i-cw Count has moro than once threatened "the Knisor with revolution and the loss of his crown if the PanGermans do not get their own way— and they control unlimited funds; for, apart'frbni a few professors and ideo-' logues, they consist of rep'resentati.'es •rof the heavy industries and 1 agrarian Junkers. .They are a State within a State. In conjunction with the •jiuitary chiefs,'they rule Germany. Tho nominal Government ie half favourable to tliem, somewhat distnretful, and wholly afraid, as.shown by its not daring to tax.them. . . ' . A Fourth Base of Power. ' •' They are now seeking- a fourth base ot power—the control of the Germin propaganda machinery. It is an obscure subject, but worth looking at, for it may aft'eot the whole world. {Wo shonld note here that the- fact that all Germany to-day is united in expecting military victory has little to do with Pan-Germa-nism, which only affects a section. It is a. .transitory phenomenon, while Pan-Germanism is permanent.) ' ■ .;■'■• . t 'Hie Pan-German propaganda is threefold—to control the' homo Press, to control opinion in tho Army, and finally to influence opinion throughout tho worlds Their own papers are, of course, well known. Biit just a year ago we ■heard that they were buying up. local papers in fl/ery town in Germany. Hie number they have acquired is unktiown, but it is said in Germany to be very great. They have also • acquired four of the leading papers. For somo tirao they have had financial control of the "Weser Zeitung." In June, 1917, the Berlin "Lokal Anzeiger , ! was bought by a Pan-German- syndicate, whose largest shareholder, was tho Prussian Minister of Agriculture,'von Scborlomer. The proprietors valued the paper at M.700,000, while the price paid, according to different accounts, was either lj or 2 millions. Laet winter the semiofficial "Norddeutsche Allgemeino Zeitung,"the most important propaganda vehicle in Germany, was bought by a. nominee of tho party, the Berlin publishor Herr Reimar Sobbing. This man, who has liad many monopolies in hiR time, has now, been given tho monopoly'of all advertisements in the btations nud trains of the Prussian State railways, which means tho capture of a great tract of industrial territory for j his party. According to the "Vossibolio Zeitung" of March 8 it would enable a turnover of raw: material to tlio value of M.lO million to he. organised.- Finally, at the beginning of Mirch, an organised'storm of petitions from agents of the Fatherland Party got rid of Herr A. Skuhra, the director of the "Munchnor Ne'ueste Nachrichteir," under whose editorship this paper, had become cls of the most.interesting and independent in Germany,' but' liad also opposed the Pan-German scheme of annexation. The "Berliner Tageblatt , of March 3 spoke of the "symptomatic significance" of Skuhra'e retirement; it is supposed that his _ paper will now work in'accordance with Pan-German i views. ■ Any day wo may hear of further incidents of the kind. Tho party I lias also been active in Austria; there, beside lesser journals, a Pan-German syndicate has purchased "Die Zeit of Vienna, the' one important paper in the capital (except the Socialist "Arbeitor Zeitung")', '.which had. shwvn itself oapaHe'of taking, an independent line. '...'..

The Press and fiie people. ' Control of the,-home-Press _ will do moro than anything else to assist lanGerinan prtpagauda in .the arifly; for of all peoples Germans are .mpst. dependent on their Press. A vivid account of the reliance of the German troops in the trenches on their papers jv'as given by Lieutenant Elfteu in the ''Vos'sische Zeilung" of August 1,1917 j books and pamphlets' do not reach all the men,- but .tho newspaper appeals to every single one; to him it is ''adviser, source of information, spiritual comforter, the' place to find the answer to all the-problems of life." This is one reason why tho Pan-Gennari funds have been directed to acquiring local papers; they are what the men read. They have also worked the trenches with pamphlets and leaflets. • Tho Gorman Government, of course, conducts a pat-; riotic propaganda in the army, which : is supposed to be non-political, though few believe this. Its relation to Pan-; Germaniem has been'• debated more | than once in the Reichstag, and tho Government have'hover given a satisfactory reply to tho detailed, charge that they favour, the Pan-German propaganda. Their official viow is that the fan-Germans are ' always stealing a -march on the Government, and that the Government disapprove, and stop; it when they find, .it out. Most tunately Lehmaniif of Munich tho publisher of the famous Pan-Gonnan warn- j phlet "Dentschlaud's Zukunft" (which prophesied the downfall of Britain by August 1, 1917), ".issued an advertisement showing thai a large quantity of '"this pamphlot had .beei;' bought by General Headquarters, that General : Ludendorff had'had a considerable nmn-. her distributed to- the-, army, and that the Minister of War"(Voii Stem) had bought 7000 copies for distribution uv military hospitals.. Thi-so facts, reproduced by "Vorwnerts," have never been I denied/and have been brought again ' into prominence by the recent trouble over the distribution of, the notorious part 7'of "Unser Vatorland , " to Von Ejchoni's itnn.v-in the Ukraine. There is, as a -fact, aiiiple evidence, dt the favour extenard "by .' the .military authorities to ,Pa,n-German propaganda. Wo need not give- details ol this, lor it is chieily interesting as a-skm in the Pan-German advance to a wider held. So far as concerns the Allies, the more Pan-German' piopagahda the German Army gets the hotter; for nothing can I stop' them prophesying' the collapse of Britain, with dates, and they are .the worst prophots known since Zedekwh, the son Chenaaiiab; sent Ahab to his death. "'