WAR ON THE AIR

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20109, 1 December 1939, Page 5

WAR ON THE AIR

CEASELESS STREAM METHODS OF THE 8.8. C. GERMANY’S LIES LONDON. Nov. 3. One of the most interesting ‘'fronts” of the war is the broadcasting services of the various belligerents. It is in action for 24 hours of the day, and there is a continuous stream of attacks and counter-attacks. The 8.8. C. listens carefully to the various German stations, and is prompt in replying to deliberate fabrications. Neutrals' talks are also noted. A “listening post” to pick up news and propaganda broadcast from stations all over the world was set up by the 8.8. C. at the request of the Ministry of Information on the outbreak of war to keep the Government posted day and night with, broadcast material. Twice a day a convoy of messengers leaves with 25 bulky packages for delivery to 25 Government agencies. Each package contains a swiftly-compiled and carefully-docu-mented summary running to 15.000 words of the mass of material contained in foreign broadcasts. How this vital centre of information works has been described by Sir Stephen Tallents, the 8.8. C. Controller of Public Relations, and Sir Kenneth Lee, Director of Radio Relations and Communications at the Ministry of Information. A Staff of Linguists. A staff of 40 expert linguists—they call them “monitors” —distributed in centres whose location is equally secret, is engaged ceaselessly, 24 hours a day and seven days a week, in picking up programmes broadcast from every transmitting station of importance. No word in a foreign broadcast of war news is missed. Every hint, in word or intonation, which suggests how public opinion in a faraway neutral country may be changing is noted. Messages are noted, translated, and dictated to shorthand-typists. These extracts are then passed to a staff of specially-selected men. chosen for their knowledge of foreign affairs and for their political judgment, who sift them and make up the summaries which are forwarded to the 25 Government agencies, which include every department directly concerned in the prosecution of the 1 war. Some 250,000 words are sifted every 24 hours, the “monitors” and foreign experts working in four shifts. From time to time an important foreign speech is taken down verbatim. When Ribbentrop made his declaration at Danzig, his words were mechanically recorded. If he catches unexpectedly a passage of unusual importance. the man with the earphones can switch on a dictaphone to pick it up. Any scrap of information which is deemed to be of special urgency is telephoned immediately to the Government departments known to be interested. Nazi Methods Ridiculed. The volume of the German wireless propaganda to all parts of the world has frequently received a great deal of publicity; the reception given to it has not been so conspicuous. Judging by reactions in England since the war, the Germans have completely failed. Their news bulletins broadcast nightly from Zeesen, Hamburg. and Cologne have become a source of entertainment and amusement. The Nazi insistence on the sinking of the Ark Royal, Repulse, and other naval ships has merely had the effect of the talks being ridiculed. Two of these German announcers are apparently of British nationality. The others seem to have polished up their English by studying the 8.8. C. The latest idea in German propaganda directed to Britain is a dialogue between a supposedly typical Englishman and a German, designated "Fritz." Specious Nazi arguments are expounded by Fritz in guttural, barely intelligible English. His “English" friend puts the “hypocritical” British viewpoint in speech freely interlarded with such expressions as "By Jove," "I say, old chap," “Really, you know.’’

Meanwhile, the old refrain goes on with embellishments: “Where is the Ark Royal? Mr. Churchill had better send a diver down to .find out.” “Where is the Repulse?" Nightly the German broadcasters are sinking the British Fleet ship by ship. Hitherto the 8.8. C. has shunned the technique of constant repetition so much favoured by Russia and Germany, but long excerpts from the White Paper disclosing the horrors of

Nazi concentration camps were broadcast for several days. Nicknames for Announcers The German announcers have been nicknamed by listeners. One is known as “Lord Haw Haw” and another as “Petulant Percy.” The 8.8. C. system is” to take a Goebbels story, decontaminate it, and to hurl it hack into Germany as a straight statement of fact. They give the names of German prisoners captured, and add, cheerfully, “We'll give you some more to-morrow.” They play recordings of Hitler’s speeches, making him confess himself a liar out of his own mouth. The bit where he says: “I have no more territorial claims in Europe." is fre tiuently used. Thby attack Ribbentrop—“ This man who attacked Mr. Chamberlain is himself one of the greatest turncoats in history—the man who. having created the Anti-Comintern Pact, went to Moscow begging for help." They plaster the Ark Royal lie with withering sarcasm. “In a message to Rome.” they say, “you asserted thai she had been sunk near the Isle of May. In an Arabic broadcast you asserted she was sunk in the North Sea. In n Spanish broadcast you declared she had been destroyed by fire.” Generally speaking, the 8.8. C. counter-attacks rather than attacks, and it avoids sensationalism.