AN ASTONISHING STORY.

Evening Star, Issue 23689, 24 September 1940, Page 5

AN ASTONISHING STORY.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —I regret that “ Sailorman ” has descended to personal vilification in his • letter. The unwarrantable slur on the goodname of the Woosters contained in the term “ landlubber ” and all its implications I shall endeavour to ignore. “ Sailorman’s ” letter is an example of the attitude of mind engendered in ,an otherwise intelligent individual by Nazi propaganda of the “ astonishing story ” brand. His reasoning, or lack of it, shows him a victim of the delusion that the Nazis are already beaten. I submit that the sole purpose of such insidious, lying, and unmoral stories as the “ disastrous invasion ” is to promote and foster the growth of just such illusions in the apologies for minds possessed by “ Sailorman ” and his type. When will these individuals learn not to be gulled by specious propaganda of any sort? Thanks to this believe anything attitude, the Nazi has been so far always one move ahead in the war game. I entreat “ Sailorman ” and his kind to endeavour to set in motion such antiquated thinking apparatus as they possess and try to realise that anything' the Hun tells us is not necessarily true. May I once more call the attention of the public to the nature of this rotten, poisonous, and filthy type of propaganda? Disguised under the heading of “ reports from neutral sources,” or “ letters from occupied France,” thousands of reports prepared in the Goebbels factory are circulated throughout the Empire, printed in every newspaper, and broadcast on every radio, doing incalculable harm to the war effort. A moment’s intelligent thought suffices to show the source and purpose of these fake news items; but, unfortunately, a moment’s thought of any type is beyond the capacity of my friend ‘‘ Sailorman.” In time of war the newspapers have a colossal responsibility. In such a country as this, where conditions have re-

duced the serious thinking of the general public to a minimum, their responsibility is even more gigantic, ft is the duty of editors to see that this responsibility is not abused by any more made-in-Germany reports of tbe above type.—l am, etc., Bertie Wooster. September 24.