Allied Propaganda Among Neutrals Outmoded by Nazis
Morrison, Herbert
Allied Propaganda Among Neutrals Outmoded by Nazis Morrison Hits British Failure To'Develop Fighters for Democracy By HERBERT MORRISON immer of Supplies, Leader of the London mm County...
...Exposures of Nazi mistakes and incompetence should be got through as effectively as possible...
...This was quite in accordance with that method of simplification constituting one of the most dangerous instruments of demagogy which Hitler, too, has utilized with telling effect...
...Chamberlain and Sir John Si-¦00 in the British Government...
...It should wake up to the fact that neutral ^countries do not take our virtues for granted!— that many of them think of Britain as a picturesque aristocracy superimposed on an industrial slum civilization...
...Popolo d'ltalia" of January 3 wrote: "The old struggle of classes has assumed greater scope...
...The Italians will move northward . . . sad in a complementary movement—crippling te Balkan resistance—the Soviet troops will go southward into Romania...
...That is a major war aim...
...It is we Socialists who most "return to original sources...
...I know them because some of them are my spiritual children, and I sincerely confess, which may appear cynical, that it was I who first infected, these people when I had introduced into Italian socialism a bit of Bergsonism, mixed with a large dose of Blanquism...
...Germany did what Italy had dene six years before, when she signed the Italo-Soviet "treaty of friendship...
...j It should put over to the world a picture of freedom in being, in Britain and the Dominions .of the British Commonwealth...
...Depending upon instructions, the Fascist press alternates in declaiming about the "diametrical polarity of two civilizations"—the Roman and Muscovite—and enthusiastic ecclamation of the solidarity existing between tbe two countries, both born of "revolution" and destined "together to liquidate the old world of the democracies...
...It must not be defeatist...
...In particular, it is necessary to expose the dangerous falsehood which attributes a "socialist" character to the National-Socialist, Fascist and Stalinist regimes, which they never had and to which they never can have any relation...
...best to have in charge of the machine nien'and women who believe in th<jse principles...
...Accuracy as to fact is of great importance : ? all propaganda...
...Several years later, after the meeting of Grandi and Mussolini in Milan in November, 1930, there ensued a new era of close- collaboration between Rome and Moscow, the consequences of which became immediately apparent in Geneva...
...our propaganda in Germany should be to weaken the faith of the German people in the truthfulness, the competence, the strength and the honor of the Nazi leaders, including Hitler...
...In other wards, that their picture of us goes back to the England of Dickens, and that they do not know the British democracy of t6day...
...Wi-'tin't tell you...
...When the Western horizon clears, Mussolini directs his thunderbolts to the East...
...Gazetta del Popolo" of February 20 wrote: "Those who fail to understand that the war between the democratic West and national-socialist, autarchial Germany (which for this reason hew become the ally of Fascist autarchial Italy) is a social war, a totalitarian class war, has failed to understand anything, and will never be able to foresee the actual development and outcome of this conflict...
...Our home propaganda should expose and jj condemn the horrors, jthe bestialities and the ?who!e evil "philosophy^ of the Nazis...
...should strike the high note of idealism iJ& hiternational affairs...
...ivlt.is for public authority to help rather than ¦Sninder the press...
...So I need not repeat it here...
...fe'StiH, the more indisputable fact there is about it, and the less personal and political .prejudice, the better...
...from the ^English with respect to coal...
...In February, 1924, he accorded de jure recognition to- the Soviet Government—exactly a month after the first Labor government under MacDonald had taken this step...
...We must show clearly what Socialism Is and make clear its antithesis to totalitarianism as a teaching that has nothing in common with totalitarian statism and which can be realized only by education of the masses and the fruitful participation of the labor and Socialist movement in the task of building a new world.___ __ t Over the Balkans I IKE inmates of a death-house row, Balkan nations await the bogging down of the German drive in Northern France—or its successful end somewhere below Paris...
...WE CONCLUDE this purely historical aketch by a few general observations...
...Finally, let us not be too nervous in engaging in a little discreet, frank speaking to the neutrals...
...Popolo d'ltalia" of November 25 commented as follows: "The meeting of Mr...
...It should make real tdvthe people, the issue .and the choice that facetkjus in September, 1938...
...It should be truthful...
...LIOME propaganda, having lifted our spirits s"and banners high in the ideological battle, should maintain the public confidence in ultimate victory...
...Let us tell .the world about these tbingS...
...The idea that it is a tactical error to attack Hitler is nonsense...
...v- War and pre-war experience has taught the : ^neutrals that Nazi propaganda is very unre?aable...
...I just don't know...
...1932...
...the building of a decent, tidy, world in which nations -may have equality of opportunity and enjoy Justice and security, provided they respect, the reasonable rights of-others and are ready, to cooperate in the collective organization of peace...
...Ordinarily,- the British people object to offi*&ai Government propaganda, as- distinct from information...
...as a means of thwarting the conclusion of an Anglo-French-Russian pact The announcement of the conclusion of the German-Soviet "nonaggression pact" was hailed unanimously by the Italian press as a victory for the...
...In his first speech in the Italian Chamber of Deputies, June 21, 1921, he termed Lenin a "marvelous artist of revolution," and in characterizing the various parties, he said: "I know the Communists...
...On one side are the proletarian peoples, replete with children, labor power, life force, but poor in raw materials...
...The Italian press and "Izvestia" were replete with enthusiastic comment, which two years later, however, changed into impassioned mutual attacks...
...A month later, discussing the problem of a truce between the parties, Mussolini spoke of the New Economic Policy in Russia, and advised the Communists to take advantage of the breathing space as a means of "adjusting their movement to the new reality in Russia.'.' In November of the same year, he cautioned Premier Bonomi against the danger to the government of waging a struggle simultaneously against the Fascists and Communists, because the "Fascists and Communists, subjected to daily beatings by the police, may, in the long run, reach a mutual understanding, in order that they may later fight with all the greater energy for division of the spoils...
...member of the Fascist Grand Council and editor of "Regime Fascists," delivered a series of lectures in many cities in which be declared that by her rapprochement with the U.S.S.R...
...Paris...
...Grandi with the People's Commissar of Foreign Affairs of the USSR has naturally attracted general attention...
...It means attacking the selfish, rich men who helped finance the Nazis to power...
...Whenever relations between France .and Italy became - strained, Mussolini begins to play with Moscow...
...This forced him to "maneuver...
...Salvemini: Mussolini Diplomate...
...The noted Italian historian~Salvemini explains this action as follows: "There has always existed a certain spiritual affinity between the dictatorial systems of Moscow and Rome, insofar as both dicj tatorships are founded upon the exclusive domination of one party and have proclaimed the infallibility of their dogma...
...In addition to being Minister of Supply, Morrison is leader of the powerful London Labor Party, which controls the County Council—governing- some 8,000,000 persons...
...fcur neutral propaganda, however, has often I'tended to be dull, insufficient, lacking in news lesBlSfuSpeed and resourcefulness...
...What the maintenance of confidence in victory is not used as a dishonest excuse to cover up the failings of the Government...
...That means attacking Fascism and its poisonous creed as an abomination...
...Go for the Nazis about their blunders...
...Allied Propaganda Among Neutrals Outmoded by Nazis Morrison Hits British Failure To'Develop Fighters for Democracy By HERBERT MORRISON immer of Supplies, Leader of the London mm County Council...
...Compare their own severe jestrictions and shortages...
...We must tear from the hands of totalitarian propaganda the instrument of social demagogy which it is utilizing with audi hypocritical cleverness...
...Fascist journalists described it as having been "permeated by the spirit of utterly exceptional friendship...
...On September 2, 1933, in Rome, Mussolini and Potiomkin signed a "pact of friendship" between Italy and Soviet Russia...
...The British cabinet now has 16 Laborites— some in the most vital posts...
...Well, that's how I feel about propaganda...
...That the difficulties are not underestimated...
...In the accompanying article the ideological bond between Stalin and Mussolini is spotlighted by A. Rossi, leader of the exiled Italian Socialist Party and editor of II Nuove Avanti, anti-fascist publication issued in Paris...
...Don't refuse to...
...It should make legitimate capital .out of the fact that all men and all nations (except the 'Dictator States) love freedom.and want it— ^and that freedom is the special virtue of democratic countries, the special prize for which *we fight...
...On the other are the "master' peoples, ruthless possessors of wealth, obtained without labor or by robbery, merciless exploiters, rejecting all attempts at honest and fair revision of the established international order...
...There is just this difference between us: you arrive at this conclusion through the idea of class, and we—through the idea of the nation...
...r The neutrals, as I have said above, should be told of the fine achievements of British representative governments-national and local—in peace and in war...
...Thus, the conflict is broadened and belongs to another scheme of things than the social conflict...
...One of the rnajor purposes of...
...After all, if we can get a sense of humor into the heads of the Germans we shall have rendered a great service to them and to mankind...
...Italy, fighting in, Spain for her ambitions in the Mediterranean, joined the Anti-Comintern pact in May, 1939, and concluded the "pact of steel" with Berlin—the Berlin-Rome axis, liowever, we know now from the words of Count Ciano himself in his speech of December 16, 1939, that during the negotiations in'Milan and in Rome the Italian government gave its consent to the Germano-Soviet rapprochement and to tbe policy of "neutralization" of the U.SJS.R...
...After all, the housing, public health education, open space and other activities of many...
...Rossi is also foreign news chief of Le Populate, the French Socialist daily edited by Leon Blum...
...Accordingly, we observe a cooling in Italo-Soviet relations in 1926 and ratification by Rome in March, 1927, of the Paris protocol, ratifying the annexation of Bessarabia by Romania...
...Tell them they must build a real democratic, peaceful Germany and that neither JjYance nor we will tolerate again such trouble as we've had since...
...We thus perceive a zigzag line, in which the "ideological" element plays only a secondary role, as a cover for more serious considerations...
...1933...
...Tell them it's time they stood on their own feet instead of letting their (Nazi masters stand on their necks...
...What was in view was no more and no less than the liberation of Italy from the American 'yoke' in the domain of wheat, and...
...It has become a struggle of peoples...
...A FTER his advent to power, Mussolini was compelled to devote '"several years to the task of suppressing considerable opposition in various regions and classes of the population...
...Italo-Soviet rapprochement in the ideological realm is also very interesting...
...So all censors should start with the thought: "I will sanction publication if I can," and not: SLtWill permit publication only if I do not find a reason for stopping it...
...It should expound best of our national ideals with, confidence ; and sincerity...
...NexJ week The New) Leader will print the official statement of...
...On the part of the Italian government there also played a role the hope of obtaining considerable economic advantages...
...Addressing himself directly to the Communists, he added: "We, like you, recognize the necessity of a centralizing and allunifying state, which imposes an iron discipline upon every citizen...
...For the successful application of the principles i have urged it would be...
...many will recall the keen, analytical tenor of his talks...
...Nor will this mark the first instance of international cooperation between the Muscovites and the Fascists...
...Soviet oil filled II Duee's planes that flew over Ethiopia and Spain...
...should insist that our sole purpose in this struggle is putting'an end to the years of blackmail, violence and insecurity...
...So is the -voluntary effort in building our defense—including civic defense —organization...
...It should not almost en;eourage the press to publish doubtful stories •and then condemn the press for publishing - them, as was the case recently...
...He must be debunked...
...Thus blow sky-high the Nazi stories of British "starvation...
...Mussolini's SympjrthliM Duce's "Anti-Bolshevism" Camouflages Italy fs Long Cooperation With Soviets By A. ROSSI AAUSSOLTNI waged bis struggle for power in Italy under the *"* slogan of "anti-bolshevism," under which slogan were, of course, included all sorts of things...
...His article on propaganda, appearing, above, is the first fat a short series, by British Labor Party leaders, urging stream- i lining of the British government's industry and armed forces...
...And he must be joked about...
...I share their instincts...
...That the : power, resources, and stratagems of the enemy are not belittled...
...It seems to me that we must do some very hard and serious thinking to dispel those foggy ambiguities with which totalitarian propaganda seeks to confuse the consciousness of the masses...
...It is recognized that, told honestly of unwelcome truths, assured that Ministers are ' facing them bravely and wjth "competence, the " British people will respond with redoubled effort...
...Perhaps one thing more should be said...
...the British Labor Party on "The War andj After," a call for socialization...
...In general, it may be said that there is no special, definitely fixed Italian policy with respect to Soviet Russia...
...Nevertheless, despite the bitterness with which he waged his fight on the Communists, Mussolini never concealed his sympathies for them, and, specifically, for the leaders of the October revolution in Russia...
...of our public authorities are something to shout about...
...Hammer it home that Germany is being bled white in order to feed the vanity of Hitler and his fellow criminals...
...And that won't -do any harm to the fools, the cynics and the reactionaries among our own rich men, who Used to say, "Well, after all, there's something tube said for this fellow Hitler...
...Among our difficulties in propaganda in neutral countries is, I am afraid, the continued a presence of Mr...
...Demonstrate their wastefulness with public funds...
...Taking up this formula, "Popolo d'ltalia" of March 2 added: "It is yet to be seen what constitutes a greater danger to our Mediterranean and imperial interests— France and England or Russia...
...He MUST be attacked...
...the Nazi case is gJWpr: yet the Allied case—strong as it is— hot been as strong as it should have been i *Vthe-neutral countries...
...Let the greed and corruption of the Nazi leaders be exposed...
...Fascists and Communists will fraternize somewhere along a border already worked out between Rome and Moscow...
...Propaganda, 1 as well as information, must be organized...
...In this line of country we have really got the Nazis beaten to a frazzle...
...it should exalt the achievements and the virtues of our democracy...
...Least of all will this ever be understood by th?' Allied democracies...
...2Sj war, things are different...
...feowied—that- it is honest...
...Hitler's campaign against the "demo-plutocracies" and Stalin's campaign against the "capitalist war" have both found a direct and approving echo in tbe Italian press and propaganda...
...These hopes failed to materialize, but the idea of an alliance with Moscow continues to appear from time to time, followed by the .opposite idea that Italy should form the center of a world coalition against Moscow...
...There i»ve been so many changes that I am not sure Tie Minister himself could tell you...
...Tell them well help them in the building of a new peaceful order...
...We will cite only two quotation's, although dozens are available...
...Much is being said concerning tbe presence of Count Bethlen in Berlin and the forthcoming visit to Rome of Tefoik Rushli Bey, Turkish minister of foreign affairs...
...The memory of the weaknesses of pre-war : British foreign policy, for which these men had so prominent a share of responsibility, I Persists...
...The Germans ehould be told really witty arid fupny stories about Hitler and the other Nazi noises...
...i.It will put them on notice, so to speak...
...1UIUCH that I have written applies to prop• ¦ aganda among the people of iGerenany and the German-occupied territories,, especially the need for spreading knowledge of our orderly democratic achievements...
...Then Why is it that many of the neutrals and even some of our own people think otherwise...
...For, he said, "doctrine is one thing, and the interests and requirements of tbe international situation—quite another...
...Italian shipyards have built Russian warships...
...And, am riot mistaken, neither does toe Govern. T'ian't even tell you what the specific furicJBjga of the Ministry of Information are...
...Laugh at them...
...Farinaci...
...The Italian press, German propaganda and Soviet radio kept on emphasizing in chorus that Soviet Russia and Fascist Italy can cooperate very well, as both countries have assumed a similar position on the question of the blockade, the neutral countries and the Finnish conflict...
...XI7HEN some Fascist circles began to speak of Italian interven" tion against Bolshevist "neo-imperialism" and of a return- to the "fundamentals of Fascism" during the Soviet invasion -of Finland, Mussolini himself and the new secretary of the Fascist party, Muti, declared that the "policy of Fascism is no less antidemocratic than anti-bolshevist...
...And I consider such an understanding possible precisely because, although there is no political affinity between them," said Mussolini...
...But the conditions of Nazi Germany and the fact that it is an enemy country faces us with additional problems...
...Daring taw Mediterranean "piracy" days of the Spanish Civil War, Loyalist food ships were sunk by Italian submarines fueled by oil from Stalin's Baku fields...
...So are our trade unions and cooperative societies, a :<*m:4J Our resourcefulness and adaptability in public administration without fundamentally impairing democratic safeguards are peculiarly British in their virtue...
...Tell the Germans frankly again and again —for .propaganda depends for its effect on constant repetition—that they can have a fair peace if tbey demonstrate their- capacity to overthrow tyranny, but that there's no peace cominjg as long" as Hitler ,or any other dictatorial militarist clique are:in charge...
...We Socialists, above all, are obligated to expose and destroy the sophistries being circulated by totalitarian propaganda, such as that of the "capitalist war...
...The coffee and the tea exhibited for sale...
...ll/E WILL NOT dwell here upon all the junctures of Italo-Soviet ™ relations, particularly because it is not always easy to grasp their real meaning within the framework of the general international policy of Fascism...
...HmDON—Passed by the censor—Don't ask Bme what is the war propaganda policy of Mfjftitannic Majesty's Government...
...Many in America will remember the fiery manner in which he spoke while on tour here for the New* Leader...
...49-50...
...They have failed to realize that the demand for greater social justice has been transformed from a problem of internal politics into a program presented by one nation to another, and that no power will be able to halt the victorious advance of that program...
...One of these men is Herbert Morrison, considered England's most capable organiser and severest critic of the British Tories...
...axis" and a defeat for democracies...
...Through the past years, this fraternity can be traced...
...i : • It should grasp the vital importance, for winning the war as well as for the peace, of making them and our own people realize what we stand for...
...As an expression of gratitude to Mussolini for recognition, in the summer of 1924, in the very midst of the crisis provoked by the murder of Matteoti, the Soviet Government instructed its envoy in Rome to give a grandiose banquet in honor of Mussolini...
...Tbe phantom of an Italo-Soviet-German *bloc,' about which the Paris newspapers and those of the Little Entente have recently emitted so much nonsense, begins suddenly to appear as a possible reality...
...It will do some of .them good...
...T fear it is because our Government was led by men who were insufficiently proud of our democratic achievement...
...criticize the German people...
...Show the German people pictures of our well-stocked grocery and provision shops...
...In France such men as Premier Reynaud, General Petain and Georges Mandel are directing the government's military and counter-espionage divisions...
...Rossi, who fought Mussolini's Souadristi in the Italian industrial city of Turin, is a leading young Italian Marxist...
...i(jJEfritish neutral propaganda should stress ¦Joe oneness of the Allied cause with the true ii gterests of all free peoples...
...They deserve it up to ,-a point—and they will respond to it...
...That the people are told with emphasis that victory will be lost unless every one of us $olls his weight and, given just government, "puts the nation's cause first all the time...
...This policy changes in accordance with the importance attached by Mussolini to the circumstances and interests of a given moment...
...In a democracy, such as ours, propaganda Should seek to conform to certain principles...
...And the list might well be so unimpressive *"*8iat he wouldn't like to...
...s?„Pur case is overwhelming...
...at the crucial moment MasaaUni, despite opposition from the Vatican and the royal family, will start his troops across Yugoslavia...
...New Leaders P*OR the first time * since, war broke in September, the Allied governments are in the hands of militant antifascists determined to win the fight — or die along with the civilisation which would disintegrate with a German victory...
Vol. 23 • May 1940 • No. 21
