FALSEHOOD AS A WAR WEAPON

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24407, 19 September 1940, Page 6

FALSEHOOD AS A WAR WEAPON

“ Mein Kampf ” has not earned the distinction of being a “ best seller ’ in New Zealand. The reliance which Herr Hitler has placed, and still places, on the use of falsehood as a war weapon may therefore have been imperfectly realised. If people in the Dominion wei'e acquainted with the revelation which that book provides of the importance that is attached by him to the practice in propaganda of deliberate distortion of the truth, they would not have been amazed, as large numbers of them probably are, at the present time, by the circulation by Germany —and by her docile tool, Italy of fantastic stories, as the Prime Minister of the Dominion calls them, respecting their attitude towai'ds the war. “In the big lie,” Herr Hitler has said, “ there is always a certain force of credibility because the broad masses of the nation more readily fall victims to the big lie than to the small lie.” For these “ broad masses,” from which he himself sprung, he entertains almost supreme contempt. “ The majority of the people,” he has written, “ are simple and gullible.” Upon their simplicity and gullibility he and his instruments are continually playing. This credibility must, however, have been subjected to an increasing strain as the studied mendacities of the Nazis have been exposed. It has long been manifest that no ti'ust can possibly be placed on Herr Hitler’s word. The conclusion by him of a pact with the Russiah rulers, whom he had described as “common blood-stained criminals” and as “the scum of humanity” furnished one of the most striking illustrations of his cynical disregard of the pledges which he had made. Among other illustrations of this are his declaration in 1938 that, when the Sudeteniand problem was solved, Germany had no more territorial problems in Europe, and his statement in September, 1939, that he would not war against women and children and that he had ordered his Air Force to restrict itself to attacks on military objectives—an undertaking of which the valuelessness was proved in the next few days and is being proved to this day. This record of perfidy might be widely extended. Metternich was said to have lied always and never deceived. Now that the world knows the Fuhrer for what he is, this statement might suitably be applied to him. Marshal Goering has rapturously asserted that there has-been no one like Hitler since Frederick the Great. He might with greater truth have said that there had been no one like Hitler since Ananias. For no one has deliberately used falsehood as a weapon in diplomacy and war on such a scale as it has been, and is being, used by the Reichschancellor.