WAR ON THE AIR

Opotiki News, Volume II, Issue 272, 18 December 1939, Page 4

WAR ON THE AIR

* CEASELESS STREAM MET MODS OF THE 8.8. C. .■/■ GIWRMANY J S LIES 1 LONDON,, ;Oiio' pi the must interesting •, ‘ts'” r ’<rf the war is tho .hroiuloftStSlig-Jworviees of. the various belligerents.lt is in action for 24 hours of the day, and there is a continuous stream of attacks and counterattacks. The 8.8. C, listens to tlie various Gorman-’-'stations, and is prompt in replying, to .deliberate fabrications. tidies 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 tho , ‘inquest 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. Mach package contains, a swiftly-compiled and carefully-docu-mented summary ninniijg. to 1 5,(Kit) words of the jnass ipf • material contained in foreign broadcasts, "t How this vital centre of information works has been described by,Sir Stephen Tallents, the 8.8. C. Controller'of 'public Delations, mull Sir Kenneth Lee, Director of Radio Relations and Communications at the Ministry of In- • format ion. A Staff of Linguists .A staff of -!0 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. If/very hint, in word or intonation, which suggests how public opinion in a faraway neutral country may he 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 lor 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 war. Some 250,000 words arc 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 ho 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 he of special urgency is telephoned immediately t« the Government departmnts known to he interested . * ' Nazi Methods Ridiculed. The volume of the German wireless propaganda to all parts ol the work'll has frequently received a great deal of publicity; the reception given to it has not been so conspicuous.

Judging by inactions' in England since the war, the Germans have completely Jailed. f I heir news bulletins broadcast nightly from Zoesen, 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 tli«t talks being ridiculed. Two of those German announcers are apparently of British nationality. The others seem to have polished up their English by studying the 8.8. C. The latest idba in German propapaganda directed to Britain is a dialogue between a supposedly typical Englishman and a German, designated “Fritz.” Specious-Naz; 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 “P.Y dove,” “I ray, 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 thc : German broadcasters are sinking the British Fleet ship by ship. ,! Hitherto the 8.8.0. lias slimmed the -technique of constant repetition si

much favoured by Russia and Germany, but long excerpts from tin* White Paper disclosing the honors 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 “Petulont 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 ol' his own mouth. The bit where he says: “1 have ho more territorial claims in Europe,” is frequently used. They attack Ribbon trup-—“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 bogging for help.” They plaster the Ark Royal lie with withering sarcasm. “In a message to Rome,” they say, “you asserted that she luul been sunk near t-lie Isle of May. In ail A ruble broadcast you asserted she was sunk ill the North Sea. In a Spanish broadcast ybu declared she had been destroyed (>y ( fife,” Generally speaking, the TJ'.B.C. coun-ter-attacks rather than attacks, and it avoids sensationalism.