Evening star., 1938-11-20

By JnninS
BERLIN.-"Did your London Times
come this morning." voice asks over
the telephone.
mo, and we've had two mail de-
liveries," comes the reply from another
Office in Berlin
II say, the post Office has stopped it
again." two voices chorus in clipped
English accent.
Must have had some news which I
ought to see" they both decide.
1t happens so often that everybody
knows the answer 1t may be this news
paper, or the London Daily Telegraph,
or, more often the Manchester Guardian
or Paris newspaper, or, finally, Swiss
newspaper, printed in German, which
oftends so often that there is standing
order against its entry into this country.
Selecting what Germany shall be per-
mitted to read or hear is function OF
the Reichs ministry of peoples enllghten-
ment and propaganda, over which Joseph
Goebbels is the presiding genius. Few
persons know the extent of its far-f1ung
organization, with representatives IN
every large city abroad where words and
white paper are transformed into news
papers. The young men in its Berlin
Offices can hear what foreign radios
send through the air, while household
receiving sets in Germany can be ad-
justed to hear only German stations,
which, like German newspapers, receive
instructions twice day from the min
istry on what they shall or shall not tell
the public.
Telegram Must Beat Mail.
Invading newspapers, like infantry, re-
ouire different tactics. The ministrys
agents in London, Paris or New York do
a prodigious quota of reading, and, IN
the first two cities, it must be done while
the newspapers are damp from the
presses. If anything is printed which
they suspect the ministry would not
want known in Germany, telegram
must reach the German frontier before
that edition arrives in the mail so that
1t can be con1scated and not scattered
through this country to give ideas which
do not harmonic with official doctrine
or version of events.
American newspapers, though they
are read as carefully, are not SO dis
turbing and seldom are conflscated
They will not arrive for week or so.
and by that time Germany's clustered
mass mentality will be turned to other
things The Reich's New York Consulate
General directs the reading circles IN
the United States. Presumably the ac-
tual reading is done by the staff OF the
DNB. Deutsche Nachrichten Bureau,
the official government news agency.
An experience had indicates reports
cabled from New York are unduly alarm
ing. A message from New York had in
formed the guardians of Germany's
reputation that 1 was responsible for an
article which said: Starving people
In Berlin are tramping the streets look
ing for food" What the article had said
was that. though there was enough of
some kinds of food housewives plodded
from store to store trying to get onions
or ggs-considerably different The
mentors of facts were lodged until
American newspapers, which had print
ed, the article, arrived. They understood
then, as the ministry usually does.
Reported to Embassy.
I'VE reported it to the American En-
bassy," one of them informed me, how
ever.
The American Government is in no
way responsible. and what does it have
to do with a newspaper article, any
way?" asked.
That is an agreement we have-to re-
port anything in newspapers which may
be displeasing to either government"
Somebody from the ministry tele-
phoned us that they did not like the
story, but we did not consider it a formal
protest" a representative of the Embassy
told me. "We expressed our sympathy,
adding that there were many things in
the German newspapers which Ameri-
cans did not like, but there was nothing
the American Embassy, or American
Government, could do, in either case"
= After the recent crisis over Czecho-
slovakia. D. N. B., the official news
agency, distributed frank and decisive
explanation for publication in all Ger
man newspapers, about news in press
and radio in Germany and the difference
between Germany and England, France
or certain other countries.
Waiting Is Explained.
why must we. one and all, wait "a
hours longer for German newspapers
and German radio than for reports
from the Strassburg radio or the Swiss
newspapers?' it states as a common
question in Germany during those criti-
cal days, and proceeds to answer, in
brief, as follows:
"Only now, after the Fuehrer has in
dicated that the military action of Octo-
ber 20, in Sudetenland, is finished, can
we speak freely about these things
custom which the people, since 1888,
have learned to know and to truly like
as a characteristic of Hitler and his
men in the government.
"Not only are the German press and
German radio recognized as the true
and indispensable instruments of power
in the hands of the Fuehrer, but only
he can decide correctly on their con-
tents, their scope and the time for their
disclosures. There are times when our
newspapers and radio stations must pay
more attention to results which may