Читать книгу Secrets of German Espionage - Bernard Newman - Страница 25

The propaganda spy must to-day be placed in the specialist class: he is not a combatant officer but a journalist, a commercial traveller or—the shame of it—a university professor. He is stationed in a neutral country: there his task is to “sell” Germany. Every German victory must be exaggerated, every German defeat minimized. There must be no question about Germany winning the war: this is particularly essential in these days, when Germany’s trade is conducted so largely by barter or long term credits. Unfortunate neutrals know quite well that the immense debts owed to them by Germany will never be paid if Germany loses the war.

In an enemy country the position of the propaganda spy is difficult: in fact, to a German national it is impossible. This is one of the cases where neutral hirelings may be successful. It has not been unknown for British and French nationals to work for Germany or Russia—unconsciously, maybe, and certainly without pay, imagining that they are serving some great moral purpose.

A neutral journalist was politely asked to leave Paris soon after the outbreak of war; like a wise man he asked no questions, he just went. Nor did he suggest to his highly respectable newspaper that they should raise any complaint, for the French reply would have been revealing. The journalist was of Fascist persuasions, and had agreed to advance the German cause. In the early days of the war, when news was scanty, he was particularly well placed to spread rumours—always described as emanating from his own neutral country, whereas many of them came from his fertile brain, the rest from Germany via his country. Attention was early directed towards this gentleman—he had actually been watched for many months—when in his conversation he talked rather too freely about the horrors of war, trying to persuade people that anything was better than the events which were happening. This sort of talk might have proceeded from high moral principles—there are many people who hold similar opinions—but when he went on to suggest that the conflict could be arrested immediately if only the French Government went out of office, then it was obvious what lay behind the rumours he set on foot.

Some Allied newspapers actually played into the German hands in their own exaggeration. General Gamelin’s initial strategy was eminently sound: it had a double purpose. By a cautious advance on to German soil he was able to afford some slight measure of relief to Poland, while all the time he hoped to goad Hitler into an attack on the Maginot Line. Had he succeeded, he would have won the war. But to read the headlines in certain Allied newspapers, you would have thought that this limited advance by a few French brigades was a major victory. Placards even proclaimed that the French had broken through a loop of the Siegfried Line, whereas, in fact, they had merely approached its outer defences. This striving for sensation is dangerous: there is nothing so damaging to morale as exhilaration which subsequently is seen to be unjustified. We shall note how the Germans employed this method in Poland. It may or may not be legitimate for the Germans to resort to such tactics, but it is surely folly for responsible journalists in Allied countries to aid and abet them.

Nor were American newspapers entirely without blame—for the leading American newspapers are, of course, studied seriously in Europe. The detached American view is often invaluable. The journalist was not taking a very deep view when he cabled to America that the war was “phoney” because General Gamelin declined to pit his army against the strength of the Siegfried Line. The aim of the Allied High Command is, as it ought to be, to economize in human life, not to sacrifice it to the slaughter. We shall be very happy if the entire course of the war is “phoney.” Although it may not provide the necessary sensations for the yellower section of the press, it may be that the war will end without a major and costly victory on land, sea or air: so much the better if it does.