HUN PROPAGANDA

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 166, 8 April 1919, Page 8

HUN PROPAGANDA

SOWING DISCORD IN AMERICA

INSIDIOUS DEVICES (From the "Morning Post" Correspondent.) Never in the whole course of the war was- a slimy German propaganda so vigorously at work as it is at the present ii time. ' Not even in the height of Berns- h j aorn"« Blow, when ho swaggered aboiu ], Washington and received in audience i newspaper men and jibed at the 1 resident and his agents openly set about ,\ their work of seduction and corruption, j, l»ye German propagandists been su busy. „ 'J'heir purpose now, as it was when tho a United States was neutral and after it v enteral the war, i≤ the same, to sow dis- t . cord between the United States ana bug- ], land and Trance. They hope in the end t , to win by trickery and cunning what t thev have lost by tho sword. The main „ object is to set England and this country { bv tho ears, and it cannot be denied that B this campaign is having some effect <j It. is a matter one would not like to f refer to unless compelled to do so, but j. it is necessary again to warn the British v Government that, just as git permitted ( Germany during the years from 1911 to } 1917 a free hand and aid nothing to coun- j teract the insidious poison spread by f Germany, so now it is either oblivious or „ indifferent to what is going on. On , t-very returning troopship there are American soldiers filled with. their gnev- , tmces and quick to voice their dislike of British soldiers and British othcers, to . tell of the contempt of "Tommy" be- ( cause it took three years for America , to get into the war and of the arrogance ; and haughtiness of the British ofhcer. , If these stories were few they could bo dismissed without serious attention as ) being due to individual dissatisfaction, but thev are too universal to be thus , conveniently disposed of, and it is only too evident that some malign influence is deliberately at work to create this . feeling, the foundation of which has been ( laid in France. , Unconscious Agents. J I am reporting not only from personal knowledge but from statements made, to me by ' Americans, warm friends or. ling- ' land, men and women workers in hos- » pitals canteens, and other places where returning soldiers are sent, who ; gravely concerned at the.se palpable evidences of hostility. Theso men and wo- ■ men believe, as I do, that tho American soldier has no real dislike ot the Jjntisli soldier or his officer, but is the unconscious victim and instrument ot German machinations. The harm done cannot bo exaggerated. Hundreds of thousands ot voiing Americans, as soon as they are discharged from the Army, scatter to all parts of the country, to the large cities os well as tho small towns and rural communities, there either to be missionaries to spread the gospel of good fellowship or to keep alive a feeling of resentI do not wish to be misunderstood or to create the impression that every returning American soldier comes back nnti-British or nursing a grievance. On the contrary, many, very many, of these men, and almost without exception every officer, from subaltern to general, has only praise for the British Army as a whole and its individual members, but it is the experience of life that it a man has one dnemy lie lias one too many, and that he may have a hundred friends and vet have not one too many. England is not alone in being made the pbiect of these delicate attentions on tho part of the always treacherous Hun. Tho same tactics are being employed between tho French and Americans. Against France. , Mr. Edwin' L. James, ono of tho most "(■liable and cartful American correspondents, cables from Coblonze to the ■'New York Times" -in account of tho methods employed by the Germans to divide the French and Americans. J.lio propaganda machinery, he says, lias been kept in operation, and is now workiiiit as it did throughout tho war, and its aim "is not only to affect the decisions of the Peace. Conference, but, nboveall. to drive a permanent wedge br.twoon the two nations, Franco and America." The Germans. Mr. James says, are trying to put nioro than 3000 miles of ocean between Franco and America. They are trying to make Americans and Frenchmen propagandists when they get home, so that if a war over starbd again between France and Germany 'imerica would not jump 1o the aid of her present Ally. Many Americans, ho adds, will believe this to be visionary, but an examination of the letters written home by American soldiers has caused very serious concern. Mr. James describes in detail how German njjeiits provocateurs magnify trifles until thev become things of nioincnt, and shows his own concern by saying: "The American 'doughboy-' who goes back home anti-French will be a problem, and it is to be feared that the number will not, bo small. It is also a problem for tho wiseheads of America and France." Simultaneously with the Army propaganda tliero is being carried on in this country ii propaganda no loss dangerous. Americans are told that their sympathies for Franco are somewhat wasted, because, as a matter of fact, Franco is richer to-day than she was before the war owiiiß to the great expenditure of England ond America in France and tho exorbitant prices which the French Government charged their Allies for billets, food, and everything <<lse. And Against England. The excessive generosity of ljngjnnd is praised, thus disarming suspicion, and then the American is told that England comes out of the war richer than ever, as. she has lout money to her Allies at a stiff rate of interest. Poor gallant France, :, not only to have her men killed, but now 1 to have to pay interest to England, who 1 nold her unlimited supplies at war prices, 2 and wiil now monopolise the trade in ', South America formerly controlled by [ Germany for which the United States is, competing! The object of all this, of 3 course, is to create a belief that pity for England is mistaken. In addition an ups peal is being made to materialise interf ests. "The new young German Repubj lie" pleads in behalf of "the Hb'erty-lov-f ing German democrats" to their feilowb democrats of America to bring tho force i of public opinion to bear upon England 0 to lift tho blockade so that Germany -, may purchase raw materials, cotton est necially, in the United Slates. 1 If Germany should be permitted to enter the American cotton market, the iml mediate effect would be a sharp increase I; in the price of cotton, ind the Southern e cotton planters, quite naturally, want all s they can get for their ptiduct, so that •- unythin" calculated to );rin>: this about e will, of course, have the support of the p Southern members of. Congress, to whom tl the price of cotton is, politically no less y than socially and economically, the very life ol their section. Tin: Washington >•■ Government is aware of what is going ;- on, but nincD the signing of the armis- ■- (ice. :tUli"iitrh espionage and other laws T are still in fores thorp has been su«li a s general relaxation from the tension of r 1 lie- win , that thn.Gprmn'is 'we little to r fear and they are practically unmolested " in their intrigues. Americans are anxi- '* ous to have all trade restrictions reniovV ed now that, the.war is o\er. It seems i. only reasonable to them that Germany ''f should be permitted to buy what she r - wants in the American market, and to K denj her 'this privilege and hamper American tra'le is to many Americans » proof tint the Allies are pursuing a policy of vimlictiveness based on sellishncs? F5 which, while iirolitin? England and to a lesser degree France, is unjust and costly to America.