The Southland Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. THURSDAY, MAY 27, 1920. THE GENTLE ART OF PROPAGANDA.

Southland Times, Issue 18832, 27 May 1920, Page 4

The Southland Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. THURSDAY, MAY 27, 1920. THE GENTLE ART OF PROPAGANDA.

Oscar Wilde once wrote an essay on ‘‘The Decay of Lying” but if he had lived to see the operations of the ‘‘propagandists” in war time and after the war in the L’nited States lie might have re-written it under an entirely different title. At the present time propaganda of this simple type is poisoning the minds of the American people against Biitain in the interests of the Sinn Fein enure and while there are no countermeasures the work must be having effects beneficial to Mr dc Valera, the SpanishIrishman who is the "president” of the “Irish Republic.” That the stories that are told of the "hated English” arc not believed by everybody is shown by the cable messages this morning informing us of some criticism of the United States AttorneyGeneral’s complacency in regard to the campaign to raise funds for the purpose of financing a revolution in a friendly country. The calm manner in which the American Cabinet permits these breaches of international custom and good-taste is on a par with some of Washington’s actions in regard to Mexico, where it declined to allow arms and munitions to be despatched to the de facto government of the day, the government that it recognised and permitted revolution to be openly directed from public offices in its chief cities. These things can it? understood in part when it is known that the Irish vole is a big thing in the American elections and when the class of story being told to the American voters about England's "tyranny” is appreciated. To British people these little fairy stories are more humorous than anything else, but when they are spun for the delectation of American audiences under the aegis of political and church dignitaries they carry a great weight and work potently for the advancement of the “cause.” Occasionally some of the gems of this propaganda, especially that being carried on with feverish

activity by Mr de Valera, reach these shores and they show that the advocates of an Independent Ireland, in the absence of counter-work from Britain, do not trouble to deal in half-truths, but go boldly and impudently to work. For instance, we find Mr de Valera, in appeals to legislatures in (he United States to recognise the “Irish Republic” telling his audiences that:

The English ordered the Irish Divisions to Gallipoli and Mesopotamia for the fell purpose of having them exterminated. In Mesopotamia, for instance, an official order forbade soldiers to leave their barracks between S a.m. and 5 p.m. because it was death to move in the heat. In the face of this order 1,100 Irishmen were marched at noon to a point 40 miles distant. There were no Turks there; 400 Irish died on the march. The next morning they were ordered back. Of the 1.100 not one lived to see the post they had left. Yet not a shot had been fired. It is England's hatred of us that breeds this strife.

With uncontradicted statements of this kind a? a background Mr de Valera proceeds to argue that America is helping “England to murder Irishmen, by neglecting to demand interest on her loans, thus providing money with which England is able to maintain forces to bleed India, to bomb and to crucify Ireland.” Similar work, almost as blatant, is proceeding in Canada, and it is astonishing, to say the least, that one should be able to read of a meeting in Montreal where the Stars and Stripes and the flag of the “Irish Republic” were flown side by side. The campaign is being conducted in America with great virulence and considerable effect, but it is only within the past few weeks that any effort has been made to combat the extravagant stories that are being fed to the American voters and that are a? a result affecting the acts and utterances of the government which has its eyes on the election that is to take place in November.