RECKLESS PROMISES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 March 1941, Page 8

RECKLESS PROMISES

i PROPAGANDA BY GOEBBELS ALL TASTES CATERED FOR. FULL OF SOUND AND FURY". Rose-coloured futures for ail but the Poles and Britain have for years been the stock-in-trade of Dr Goebbels’s propaganda. He Hung consistency to the winds long ago and with his Fuehrer has promised independence to the Czechs and Czechoslovakia to the Germans, prosperity to the Dutch and Dutch businesses to the Nazis, a square deal to the French Empire and French colonial spoils to the Italians, until Europe has sickened of the clatter of his double tongue. Just as the opium habit drives an addict to excesses, so this Nazi habit of reckless promising is driving Goebbels into meaningless outpourings. Contradictions which escaped attention when they were addressed to different audiences are now being showered on a single public. Even the German home listener—trained though he is to be credulous —must find it hard to pick the truth from among the following assurances:— For instance, on the standard of living that the New Europe will enjoy, Goebbels has one story for the gullible public and another for the economic expert. First propagandist: “The rapid and far-reaching rise in the standard of living in Europe, which is Germany’s aim under the New Order, will not in 'any way be achieved at the expense of other highly developed nations.’’ Second propagandist: “Norway will be adjusted to the Continental price level, wages will be reduced and Norway will no longer be allowed a higher standard of living than the Continental countries.” The Nexy Order so-called is fruitful in contradictions. Take.its basic principle—that Germany shall run it: — First propagandist: “Germany’s

aim is tp create order but not to conquer or rule by tyranny, to put an end to disunity but not to destroy liberty.” Second propagandist: “The responsibility for Europe now assumed by the Reich makes it necessary to keep our military striking power permanently in action. This will require the maintenance not only of a good but also of a strong army wherever the Reich is faced with tasks of leadership.”

The economics of this German Europe are likewise cooked to suit all palates:

First propagandist: “Neither the European continent nor Germany desire to continue their self-sufficiency of wartime as the ideal of post-war economic relations.”

Second propagandist: “Germany wants the other nations to live, but not on Germany. Europe must cut herself off from her international connections and aim at an exclusively European economy." Shall Germany or shall she not till her soil with foreign labour? The townsman is told "Yes,” the peasant “No”: —

First propagandist: “Germany’s agricultural labour problems are only temporarily solved by the employment of foreign 'free' workers. After the war the soil will have to be cultivated exclusively by Germanblooded labour.”

Second, propagandist: “After the war when we shall have to use foreign labour to an even greater extent than we have hitherto, it is obvious that in more responsible and difficult but also better paid technical and skilled work preference ought to bo given to the German worker." Last but not least comes the individual worker—egged on by word of mouth with promises that are revealed as groundless in the papers ho no longer bothers to buy:— Hitler: “We have great plans which all have one common aim—to create and build a German peoples State. We shall remove all obstacles and abolish all barriers which prevent the individual from taking the place that is due to his ability." Seldte: "After the war a wave of mdustrial nationalisation will sweep over Germany and Europe and will naturally favour large concerns. Romantic notions of business will have to disappear. Insofar as the small man is not a specialised supplier, one cannot guarantee him a safe future." The crowning cynicism of this immoral series is this week's assurance (Zeesen radio 22/1/41) that: "If the Fuehrer promises a new and more just world there is every reason to believe that he will not fail to transform his assurance into reality." But which assurance? You" can take your choice.