MISTAKEN PROPAGANDA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 June 1941, Page 5

MISTAKEN PROPAGANDA

CRITICISM OF 8.8. C. BROADCAST On a recent Sunday morning, when I Londoners, still a little staggered (for I they cultivate courage, not bravado) by J the ‘'blitz'' of the previous WednesI day. were hearing of another heavy 'attack on the capital a few hours [earlier, the British Broadcasting Corporation announcer took occasion to sound a paean on British night-fighters, mentioning the number of victories they had achieved in the past few : weeks, writes '‘Janus'’ in the “Spec- ! tator.” No praise, of course, could, bcj too high for any department of the ' Air Force or the men serving in it. Our debt to them grows greater every day. But the public are not fools, and once they get the idea that something is being put across them that the facts do no warrant the effect on morale will be far worse than anything the| Germans threaten. They read the papers, and they know well that, as a leading air correspondent in a leading newspaper put it that very Sunday, the night-bombers that have been brought down in recent weeks represent no more than perhaps 1 or 11 per cent of the tolal force engaged. From the point of view of effective defence that is not success; it is failure. There was no need to dwell on that at all. But to draw deliberate attention to it and represent it as success is folly little short of crime. False optimism 'invariably brings its own retribution. Far better admit frankly that we have not begun yel to get satisfactory results against the night-bomber. Neither, fortunately, have (lie Germans. Both sides can night-bomb with relative impunity.