WAR NEWS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 July 1941, Page 5

WAR NEWS

QUESTIONS OF CENSORSHIP & PROPAGANDA DEBATE IM THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. MR DUFF COOPER’S DEFENCE. i British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, July 3. Opening the debate in the House of Commons on the Ministry of Information vote, Sir John Anderson said the Ministry’s work fell under three headings: First, news and censorship; secondly. publicity in Britain; thirdly, propaganda in foreign countries. The Government’s set policy was that war news should reach the public as quickly as was consistent with security and one of Britain’s best propaganda weapons was> to be first with the true facts. Foreign propaganda must be regulated by foreign policy and it was for the Foreign Office to indicate the target at which foreign propaganda aimed, but the means by which the target could be hit was for the Ministry of Information. Mr Edon had decided to appoint a special deputy under-secre-tary for this work and Mr Bruce Lockhart had been selected for the post. There were no differences between the Government and those who stressed the all-important part to be played by publicity and propaganda, except the conception of the' most effective machinery for the purpose. During the subsequent debate criticisms were advanced relating to British propaganda abroad, specially by means of broadcasting. Dealing with these criticisms, the Minister of Information, Mr Duff Cooper, in replying to the debate, said he had reduced propaganda to two main messages —first, that Britain's cause was just and secondly that Britain was bound to win. Which of these two messages it was advisable to stress varied according to the country to which it was addressed. In a great and powerful country like the United States, the rightness of the British cause was most important. In spite of smaller resources, the British Ministry of Information published more information about the war than did the Nazi propaganda machine. Regarding the result of German propaganda in the United States, where for 20 years it had been insidious and successful, Mr Duff Cooper said that every day and every week during 12 months German ship shares had fallen in America and British shares had gone up.