The Penn's Grove record., 1919-12-26
Plot To Alternate Britain and U. s..

L IVt ~ IlNh0t OAASdAt oto Os 0s
Gordon Stiles, correspondent of the
Philadelphia Bulletin, writes as fol-
.ows:
Further proof that active efforts r
being made by the Germans to stir up
i'll feeling between the United States
and Great Britain came to me just be-
fore leaving Berlin two weeks ago.
1t was in the form of a pernicious
circular, entitled, "The Reconquest of
America" alleged to be published by A.
Gordon Brown Co., 1874 E. 9th Street,
New York.
The pamphlet was mailed to me at
nv Berlin address in a wrapper bear
ing the name, Ferdinand Hansen,
Shallingstrasse 1852, Hamburg" Also
enclosed was a copy of a petition for
the impeachment of President Wilson.
Since reaching London l learn this
document has had considerable circu-
lation in theUnited States, but the
fact that it is being circulated by
Germans among Americans in Ger
many lends strength to the theory
it originally was inspired by German
interests.
The booklet purports to be a long
detailed report addressed to Premier
Lloyd George by a British agent in
America, covering work done there
during the last twenty years, the
obiect which is said to be the
peaceful return of the American col
onies to the dominion of the British
Crown"
The thirty pages which the booklet
contains are devoted cleverly to mat
tiers supposed to show that the crafty
hand of Britain has been laid upon
virtually every vital phase of Amerl-
can life and that the British position
has for two decades been infused into
our national arteries in so subtle a
manner we have been entirely unaware
of the process.
It points out our schools, pulpits,
bar, newspapers, amusements, lltera-
ture, commerce, and even motion
pictures have been permeated with
this insiduous propaganda.
1t gives tire cost of converting an
American to views which would re-
concile him to- becoming a British sub
iect as ffty-three cents, owing to the
efficient methods developed by the
workers of the British Government.
Careful scrutiny of this pamphlet by
an informal reader must result in the
conclusion that the whole matter is
absurd as we'll as amusing, but that
in the hands of the poorly educated
it easily could be come a vicious in
fuence.
The statements made regarding
some of u most prominent men and
institutions are entirely preposterous,
but they are cIeyerly coupled with
actual events in such a manner as to
deceive the unthinkIng reader
But several gross error IN the
book stamp it at onee as a pure fake
Most noteworthy of these is the con-
nection with a paragraph dealing with
newspaper proprietors. The state
ment is made:
81 would call your attention to the
fact that American newspaper owners
employ exclusively British subjects
and journalists born and trained in
Britain as their English ~cOrrespon-
dents. Needless to say, we employ
none but E~ng1ishmen as American
correspondents of dailiesy SO that
American news is presented to our
people and English news is pre-
sentcd to American people only IN the
proper English aspect"
There the writer overreached him
self because it is a known fact that all
the big American papers and news
agencies employ Americans almost ex-
clusively as their foreign currespon-
dents. The exceptions to this are rare
and nowhere more so than in Eng
land.
The methods set forth in this r
port are so similar to those employed
by Germany in the United States that
it is not unreasonable to conclude she
is up to her old tricks again, so far
as propaganda is concerned