The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-09-04

l AAARkVSVAAAe bAAS matches he will find that the match cover presents face of the typical toothy Jap, each of the matches being & tooth In the Jap jaw. There Is e slogan, "Yank out Tojo's teeth, ' and, sure enough, every time match is pulled from the paper, tooth disappears from the printed face.
 This novel notion is supposed to be one of the latest touches of put ting over propaganda in foreign lands, There are similar striking ideas, to match that, for distribu- ton in other lands. Cracks at Laval for France, gags on Mussolini for Italy and you know who for Ger many.
 The propaganda, of course, isn't confined to matches. There are re- productions of Henry ,Wallace's speech advocating a world In which everyone will have a bottle of milk Q day, printed in little booklets. There are statistics on American re- sources and American war produc- ton, illustrated by cartoons and gagged-up graphs, indicating the eventual United Nations victory. There are pretty little stories for the children, printed on rice paper to make them this enough to hide in school books.
 AXIS IS KIDDED
 One of these childrens stories for grown-ups is titled "Three Men in 0 Boat" Tn simple language 1t tells how MusSolini starts out in an old tub to look for his fleet. He picks up Hitler, and later Tojo. The tub flies over America, and they see the U. s. war production.
 T know that the Americans are deaf" cracks Hitler, because I told them such production was im- possible" Later he says, Nobody believed me when I said I would conquer the world" To which Mus solini replies, Neither did l." Any way, they finally find Mussolini's heet-at the bottom of the ocean.
 All this, and lot more that can't be told about. is the work of the Overseas Publications Bureau of the Office of War Information.
 Most familiar aspect of this over- seas propaganda is of course the short wave brodacasting beamed to foreign countries.
 But the job of telling the world particularly the neutral countries which are potential allies-cant all be done by radio or by dropping leaflets or safety matches out of a plane. A lot of it has to be direct contact work and for that job this Overseas branch of OWI has set up an outpost bureau which has estab- lished offices all over the world.
 Into places like Turkey, for in- stance, go Americans whose job 1t is to spread the American story through established media in that country.
 One of the strangest assignments given by this Overseas branch was to open an outpost office" in Lon don, to help explain and interpret ALdll wal CAAOAI bO eAAC British. If the British have to be sold on the benefits they are re- ceiving from Lend Lease, you can see how difficult the job would be in Brazzaville or Burma.
 EVERY DETAIL STUDIED
 Getting this atmosphere native to the country of consumption is one of the important details. When a broadcast or a pamphlet is to go out in French, for instance. they don't just write it in English and then have it translated. It is writ ten in English, then given to a French writer to rewrite. He puts it in French idiom and in a style to which Frenchmen are accustomed.
 A case might be made that a lot of this effort could be spent to better advantage turning out bull lets or beans to feed soldiers who would fire the bullets to shoot Ger mans dead. But this is fancy war with lot of newfangled ideas, such as trying to talk your enemy to death.
 In the last three months the Overseas branch. and its personnel of 1900 people, have cost around a million and a half dollars a month. but that includes not only salaries btu travel, cables. expenses of men overseas. printing. propa- ganda and a healthy hunk of money to buy time for shortwave broad casts.