IN THE GERMAN LIE FACTORY

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 5, 1 October 1918, Page 9

IN THE GERMAN LIE FACTORY

THE HEAD CENTRE OF GERMAN

PROPAGANDA

SOME HISTORIC "FAKES"

It is given to few. persona, even aecret service agents like myself, to •penetrate- behind the scenes of the German lie fautory. Those who do so never forgot ; it. For, next to the secret service, this factory ia one of the most important hidden institutions in tho iFatherlnnd. It is subsidised by the Gc .'rnnient.., -Hero millions of lies arc manufactur'cd annually. At a cost of hundreds of thousands of pouuds they arc spread over tho .earth (writes a secret service agent in "Pearson's Weekly,") •■ Through-this factory political crimes assume a new aspect. Germany is represented to be winning when sho is losing, prosperous when sho is poverty-stricken, -wbilo failures, are made into successes and the truth is distorted so tliat things take on anew significance. , : • '■•

Tho 'Wilhcliiistrasso of Bcrlji is the German Downing Street. In it are situated tHe German Foreign Office, the Imperial Chancellor's Palace, the Colonial Office, the Imperial the Home Office, and numerous other -Government Departments and . buildings. These nro concentrated in the comparatively email 'district between the.main shopping street and Untcr den Linden, that famous German noule'-.' vard in which I have experienced so many' sensational adventures-. ■ ■;

Underneath the Foreign -Office—tliat ramshackle old-one-story structure of trick and stucco which dates from midBismarckian days—are eitiiated.a suite of magnificently furnished rooms, tell In number, iii which-are periodically hold conferences of men and women who have every right to be called the world's greatest liars. . : ,

This is the- headquarters of the bureau. All the offices inWilhelmstrasse. I have montioried" are connected with it hy means of house telephone's. And alone tho thickly-carpeted passages .guarded by sentries-the war-worn, pre-maturely-aged Kaiser, often . walks, to tonfcr.with those whose business it is to bolster up his dying cause. by. stu? pondous falsehoods. '. -.;.' Clothilda WJiltq. ■... ■'": '.. < ■ From time to 'time the staff of the 'bureau changes. But its object is over the same.. The:great tireless-.trans-mitting and.receiving station:on..the roof, with its speaking tubes down to the netliei regions, is always busy. News is manufactured for, homo and: foreign consumption,.'the people of Berlin are as successfully, deluded from : these underground apartments,,as.the denizens of some'native village in' India. .'•' .. i. .., .... .., Stu'dehts of" , German secret history will always find themselves'faced by one peculiar fact. A beautiful woman Is invariably found in any great secret movement. This is a whim of . the Kaiser's, nnd 'is carried out' everywhere in the- Fatherland. ■' ■ ■

. Ono ,of the most engrossing alities I have met in connection with the Kaiser's lie factory is a beautiful Viennese Jewess of <\becure- origin. .For some years she has owned the "Continental Times." Tho divorced wife of a distinguished , English gentleman, she still keeps her surname for tho purpose -of deceiving ytininformed people into thinking that' the infamous organ of which ehe' is proprietress is stilDEuglish owned—as it was originally. ■ . ■ . : ■'. ■

_: Ciothildo. White is the name by which '.she is known, and the rag she runs ..has'ibeen turned frpm a,,financial,.fail'tire into a big suncess by .specialising in vilifying everything British. For this work the Government has paid' Clothikle heavily, and with tho aid of the German postal authorities' the scurrilous publication even now finds its way over tho English-speaking 'world. ...:-.

In addition, Frau Clothilda has been given a pqsit.ipn on"'the .directing staff of tho lie factory, and for.this she receives a separate salary.. She dresses liko a. princess, ■ and her ; brain devises the. numerous denials it is necessary to issue- frequently concerning; the reprehensible scandals in which tho'Kaiser's sons and favoured members of'liis entourage are involved. " i

Another member of this strange bureau is Clothilde's own -news .editor of t.lie Times," a renegade Irishman and friend of tho lato Sir Roger. Casement, and i elated ■ to ono of the best known families in the British Peerage. What imnienso valuo is placed on his services by tho German lie'factory is .proved by tho fact that whereas practically every other British subect in Germany is interned as a prisoner of war, he is allowed—or at any rate was when I was last in the Kaiser's capital —perfect liberty. He assumes a score' of difForpnt' natnes —under'-'which he writes .articles vilifying Britain and extolling Gormany, and these are- circu-. lated broadcast. • .

. _ The Notorious Wolff Agency........ _ 'Die German lie factory, would-be of little use without the notorious' Agency, the chief tool "of the Berlin Press Bureau, which distributes, chiefly by wireless,. Vows of. vicKnes'-that aro. never .w6i!,'-battles-'th'at' : afe 'jiever, fought, -.sneech'es' that .are' never- utterad, decisions that are-never made, and raids on Britain' tliat arp v ne-yer even attempted, let alone oarfied out: If you-believe the Wolff effusions, London lias been blowiiv to bits, , the British Navy has b'ppn sunk, King George has been;assassinated/the Britisli Army—or a' good portion of ithas been annihilated, and England, isi it the mercy of Hie Germans I

■■ 'Wherever Kaiser "William'goes a reporter of the -Wolff'Agency is attached to liis suite, and.no.ver. leaves it.; This gentleman, too, is an artist in lies, and culls the world with' statements-of ( tho Kaiser's health, his doings, his perennial youth,' and his belief in the .ultimate'triumph of his'amis. - Over two years ago it was my.lot, to become acquainted with tho inner history of,the now famous "Germany is Starving"" lie. Thousands of readers will be ■astonished to lean:, now for-the first tinio that' that colossal ,lie had its birthplace in Berlin,-iu the very suite of rooms jn -the WilheJmstrasW which T' have described, at a conference with tho Kaiser.. . .Herr Wolff, Clothildo AVhite. ami tho nowa editor of the "Continental Times" were present. The idea emanated from the editor. Ho suggested- that if enemv and neutral countries were flooded with the statements that Germany was on the verge of , starvation, bankrupt for money, short of-leather, oil, fuol,\copper ,' and so'forth, that she was in such extremities as to be iforced to commandeer domestic utensils for copper, iron, and tin, and that (food riots were taking place overywhero, Germany's enemies would, be-lulled into a sense of Jiilse security. Thinking she was beaten, the Allies would relax their effort's in munitions, tnko no rains to conserve their food, and let things slide generally. . . • .

I witnessed some of these so-called broad riots at the timo, and saw .tho photographs which 'were ostensibly smuggled out of Germany, but really iillowed to., leave by the 'Government for publication in otlior'countries. The photographs-; wore not "fake;"- but the riots were. They word arranged' and engineered by the Kaiser's lie factory. Every cnomyand neutral country was falgely ,informed that. the..Fatherland was practically foodless.

Thoro is no doubt that, evou thou there was n shortage of food in Germany. But sho was not starving. Recently the fako riots niny liavo become a stem reality, and tho country' may now bo on the verge of starvation; but over two years have elapsed sinco the time of whioh I speak, and by strict rationing she has. managed , to conserve her food, oil, leather, copper, and tin, until, at any rate, a comparatively- recent date.' How far this stupmidous.lio.served.' its purpoee in deceiving other countries I am not in a .position to et»ig, but I do know that 'the editor received high praise for the idoti from his Imperial master, the Kaiser, in Addition, to a big monetary reward.