NAZI PROPAGANDA

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20056, 30 September 1939, Page 5

NAZI PROPAGANDA

FURY WITH BRITAIN

ECONOMIC WEAPON

METHODS COMPARED

ALLEGED INHUMANITY

(British Official Wiruluss.)

Reed. Noon. RUGBY, Sept. 2(. It is significant of the great—am it may well be conclusive—import nnCe of economic warfare in the present conflict with Germany tha so large a part of the Nazi propaganda effort is directed to misrepresentation of British action in this resp Cc. and to the attempt to jusify thr methods employed by the Nazi Gov - ernment itself which are violent, undiscriminating and inherently like!; to cause loss of life, while the Bri tish methods, pursued in the . legit: mate exercise of sea power, arc directed to lawful ends and no' aimed against human life or innocen". cargoes.

So far as the British action against contraband trade is concerned, th\ instruments by which it is carried or. are such as to permit full conformity with the laws of war and to avoid loss of life or unnecessary damage. The difference between the German and British methods is one betweer what is essentially a weapon o: terror, even if wielded, as it often is, by men personally brave and gallant on the one hand, and on the other a carefully-regulated system of warfare under the control of proper-ly-regulated courts.

Two Principal Forms The German propaganda Pn this subject takes two principal forms. There is first the assertion that Britain, by the inclusion of foodstuffs on the list of conditional contraband, is conducting a blockade that is both inhuman and illegal. Secondly', there is the suggestion that the British action is inimical and unfair to neutral interests.

The first charge falls into two parts—inhumanity and illegality. As to inhumanity, it is to be remembered it was the Nazis who began some years ago to deny food to German women and children from the day when Field Marshal Goering told them it was better to have guns than butter. It was this fatal choice by the Nazi leaders that first caused the German people to tighten their belts and the same leadership that has plunged them, and other peoples as well, into war, which is itself tbe great inhumanity.

GERMAN SHIPS SEIZED

DUTCH INDIES’ ACTION

CLAIMS AGAINST LINE

.■lndependent Cable Service.) (Reed. Sept. 30, noon.) LONDON,, Sept. 29. . The Amsterdam liners Essen, Cassel and Naumurg were seized at Sourabaya in favour of a Dutch firm having a claim of £125,000 against ' the Maimburg-tAmerica Line. German ships in other Dutch Indies harbours were also seized.