OF POOR QUALITY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 November 1941, Page 3

OF POOR QUALITY

BRITISH PROPAGANDA TRACTS

DROPPED BY R.A.F. IN FRANCE

PERTINENT SUGGESTIONS.

NEED OF GOOD CARTOONS. It is interesting to know what our friends in France think of our propaganda effort. The following are extracts from a report from a reliable source: “Resistance to German attempts to influence public opinion is not particularly assisted by the propaganda from Britain, and it is with feelings almost of despair that some French regard the poorness of the tracts dropped over France by the R.A.F. as compared with the numerous illustrated tracts got out by the Nazis. These German tracts are produced by the ton, and the repetition of certain images has more influence on the more impressionable than the British tracts reprinting the declarations of Hitler, about whom'the French have long ago made up their minds. “Certain friends of Britain, especially in the west, are asking why cartoonists like Low are not employed on propaganda, for they consider that caricatures of Hitler and his supporters, German or French, would have a much happier effect in counterbalancing the influence of German cartoonists, who could be beaten thus on their own ground. ‘•The French are greatly appreciative of cartoons ridiculing the masters of the moment, and it should not be forgotten , that France remains the country where ridicule kills more surely than literature. “Ninety-nine per cent of the tracts dropped over France by the R.A.F. since the armistice have been of .no use. Numerous Parisians with whom I have spoken have told me of their disappointment at not seeing more of the R.A.F. over the capital, the ideal spot for dropping tracts. One could be certain that intelligently written tracts dropped over Paris would soon reach the whole of France. But care would have to be taken not to drop over Paris productions inferior to those which already circulate clandestinely and which in great part are the work of students at the universities.”