GERMANY'S THREE VOICES

New Zealand Listener, Volume 3, Issue 71, 1 November 1940, Page 11

GERMANY'S THREE VOICES

Radio Propaganda In Divided France France, divided, must now be dissected, if German radio broadcasts are any indication of Hitler's policy towards the people whom conquest has made his subjects. This story from the "Manchester Guardian" explains what sort of a propagandamixture is being fed the French:

HAT is Germany’s attitude to France, and what are her intentions as far as ~ France is concerned? Is she proposing to destroy France? Is she ~ prepared to tolerate the Petain Government as an obedient satellite? Or is she thinking of replacing the Petain Government by a more "dynamic" Nazi regime more closely modelled on Berlin "ideology," and abandoning all claim to autonomy and "relative independence"? It is probable that the Germans have not quite decided yet, for so much \ still depends on the progress of their war against England. But a study of their broadcasts on France during the past few weeks is none the less illuminating. Striking Difference There is a striking difference between the comments on France contained in the German home broadcasts, in the French broadcasts given from occupied territory in France and the foreign language talks given by German stations for the benefit of neutrals and Scandinavians. Thus a German broadcast in Danish recently dwelt on "the probability of a solid Franco-German peace before the end of the war with England." In a broadcast to Rumania, the German wireless drew idyllic pictures of the friendly atmosphere in Paris, which it claimed was rapidly returning to normal. Very different is the tone of the German home broadcasts. These continually sneer at the French, and emphasise the distrust which Germany must continue to feel for them. Thus recently the Deutschlandsender station described Paris as "almost a deserted city, whose inhabitants wander around on the roads somewhere between the Loire and the Pyrenees." The same station likes to dwell on one of the favourite themes of "Mein Kampf"-the French are a negroid and racially impure people, who have committed a crime against white Europe. Much more subtle and curious are some of the broadcasts in French from the German stations in occupied France. Here a great deal of anti-Vichy propaganda is found. Thus Rennes P.T.T. told the French that they were having a new Constitution inflicted upon them: "The people of France have not been consulted. The old Constitution, though oldfashioned, was still of some value to many people... will the French people accept these political manoeuvres for ‘saving their country’?" Working-Class Appeal The same station dwells on the theme that "Europe is too small to be divided into small nations," and one of its broadcasts was that addressed to the

French working-class, who were told how the Hitler regime had abolished unemployment in Germany, and had set up a minimum wage. It is curious how at the same time the anti-British propaganda from the German stations in France is intended to appeal to the national instincts of the French working-class. Mr. Churchill’s proposal to the Reynaud Government of a union of the British and French Empires is indignantly treated by Rennes P.T.T. as "an outrage to France’s ten centuries of history . . . We French shall take our revenge on England one day." In short, the German game of dividing France is continuing. Having lured Petain’s men into submission, the Germans are now preaching disloyalty. towards the Petain Government among the people of France, particularly of Paris, and are tempting them, and especially the French working-class, with pleasant pictures of the "democratic" advantages of National Socialism, with the emphasis on the second word.