Evening star., 1942-09-19

against Jews, Dut FIOCcStdlllS dSdlIlS
tants, and some Protestants against
other Protestants. One of the great
est blows to this propaganda, DR..
Clinchy indicated, is the growing CO.
operation among Protestants, Cath
olics and Jews.
The rapidly expanding coopera-
ton among the three faiths in the
United States-and also in Great
Britain-is a development which Is
viewed with great alarm by Axis
propagandists, as evidenced by the
recent attack launched by Roberto
Farinacci, a leading Fascist spokes-
man, on the inter-religious move
ment. Farinacci denounced the
Vatican for its sympathy with perse-
cuted Jews, and for its failure to
protest against and condemn the
communicating religious unions be-
tween Jews. Protestants and Catho-
lies in the United States and Great
Britain"
Axis use of anti-Semitism as a
weapon to divide nations Is well
known, but religious themes are also
being employed. Religion continues
to be one of the important elements
of japanese propaganda. AS re-
Gently as August %, the Toxic radio,
in a broadcast to North America,
tried to give the impression that the
Roman Catholic Church is In favor
of Japanese conquests.
Aims of Campaign.
The religious note was particu-
larly played up after the United
States entered the war. Believed
to have been planned in Berlin, the
campaign aimed to create ill-feeling
between religious groups in the
United States and to turn Roman
Catholics of Latin America against
the United States. Much of this
propaganda has been crude, but
some of it has attempted to skillfully
exploit existing tensions or contro-
versies between religious groups.
Thus, one of the chief aims OF ia
panese religious propaganda has
been to create deep cleavage be-
tween the pacifist and non-pacifist
groups in the Protestant churches
of the United States. A special case
in point was the Japanese broadcast
last April which quoted DR.. Toyo-
hiko KagaWa, noted Japanese
Christian, as asserting that Japen-
ese Christians are daily praying for
peace Tokio's purpose in this in
stance, according to the Far Eastern
missionary experts here, was to
cause a. split in the American
churches by starting controversy
over the prayers of japanese Chris
tians for peace.
The peace theme has also been
used by Nazi propagandists in an
effort to cause division. The most
recent examples are the reports,
originating in Vichy and cabled to
American newspapers, which de-
clared that the Roman Catholic
bishops of Germany had addressed
letter to the Pope urging the Holy
Father to publish a peace program
which would be acceptable to both
warning groups. A previous story
had declared that the Pope was pre-
pairing a peace" encyclical which
would appear the end of August or
the beginning of September. Both
reports were subsequently branded
as false by the Vatican in state
ments to the Catholic press.
This type of propaganda has,
however, had little effect upon reli-
gious groups in the United States,
since church leaders are on guard
against it. It is believed that a
more dangerous type of propaganda
is being spread throughout Latin
America which may also have its
repercussions in the United States.
One of the latest opportunities
which Nazi propagandists are said
to be exploiting is in connection
with the growing influx of Protes-
tant missionaries into Latin Ameri-
can countries. According to reports
from South America, Nazis are cur
rently appealing to Catholics with
the argument that the increased
number of Protestant missionaries
in Latin America is part OF a move
to "YankifX" the Southern continent