Evening star., 1942-10-04

Agents try to peddle its products chief
ly to families of fighting men killed, cap
tured or still in action abroad.
At present, owl is withholding what
1t learned from recent weeks of investi
cation. but officials say they are
amazed" and "astounded" They may
make private report to Federal authori-
ties. They may also ask the newspapers
and the radio to help refute enormous
lies founded on half truths.
Here is sample:
"A Minnesota mother received by par
eel post from Japan box containing
the eyes of her soldier son captured in
the Philippines"
Americans were taken prisoners there,
true, but officials say no sNch mother
could be found, and none of the rumor
peddlers knew where the story started.
Traced to Toxic.
owl, however, learned the fear ru-
NOR" had been beamed to South Amer
lea by Radio Toxic and passed along by
Axis agents who, at the same time, were
busy spreading the gossip that Gen.
Wainwright, also Philippine prisoner,
pleaded with the United States Govern
ment to stop the war, saying, I'VE are
no match for the Japanese soldiers. 1t
is most regrettable that the United
States plunged into war with Japan"
You have the War Departments Off
cial word for 1t that Gen. Wainwright
did no such thing.
In the build-up for Radio Berlins Sep
tember % assertion of wholesale sink
ing of American conveys and troopships
en- route to England, here were some of
the rumors spread:
Ohio-"Our forces are losing so per
cent of all troop transports, but the Gov
ernment is keeping these losses secret"
ssachusetts-"Five hundred five
United States ships sent to Russia have
been sunk"
North Carolina Atlantic Coast
beaches were closed to swimmers be-
cause so many of them bumped into
bodies of drowned American sailors"
Unprotected commercial coastwise ship
ping has had many losses, true-but on
September % maritime insurance rates
on Navy-escorted conveys was reduced
for the second time since we entered the
war!
Limited to Dies Expose
Some observers see q connection be-
tween Owls roundup of the new rumor
factory and formal announcement that
the House Committee on Un-American
Activities shortly will make public the
names of SO organizations within the
United States identified as "Nazi Front"
groups
Chairman Dies says that % per cent
record and that many of them occupy
places of high standing" These, he adds,
ARE neither Nazis nor Nazi sympathizers
but have been duped into joining because
some ostensible principle appealed to
them"
Owl says the rumor factory is shot
through with old, familiar Berlin Rome
Toxic hate Roosevelt, hate Churchill,
hate England. all concocted to cast doubt
and suspicion on the Allied war effort,
on the integrity of our own Government,
and on the wisdom of war against the
Axis.
Examples:
New York-"Roosevelt distrusts Church.
Ill; Churchill distrusts Stain; Stain dis
trusts everybody"
New York-"Churchill hates Ameri-
cans He wants Germany and Russia to
annihilate each other. Hence, no second
front"
Massachusetts-"A can't get
sugar for canning because Roosevelt is
sending it to England to make British
marmalade."
Indiana-"Americans have to give UP
gasoline and tires so England can keep
Australia"
Tennessee-"The British Navy is doing
nothing while the United States Navy is
conveying to England and Russia and
leaving the Atlantic Coast unprotected"
Ohio-"China is not getting United
States-British war supplies because Eng
land does not want China to become a
first-class power in the Orient"
Illinois-The British make American
soldiers in England ride in Jim Grow
cars CThere are no Jim Grow cars in
England)
New York-"United States sailors won t
drink in public bars with British sailors,
saying the towards can't fight their way
out Of soap bubble"
Nazi Radio Main Source.
owl traces most of this stuff to Radio
Station Debunk," powerful Berlin
short-wave outfit purporting to exist
somewhere in the American Midwest as
aUnited States station telling the truth
about the war. Its main object is to prey
on anti-English sentiment in this country
and. If possible, breach the British
American war alliance so desperately
feared by Axis partners.
Ralph Barton Perry. Harvard Univer-
sitys chairman Of American defense,
says the best way to calm down super
patriots still fighting George Ills "hired
Hessians" is to recall that the men who
inspired the American Revolution and
wrote the Declaration Of Independence
and the Bill Of Rights, were Enslishmen.
To 1rish-Americans he would say:
Despite past cruelties and blunders Of
British government, the most powerful
force for Irish freedom has been the
fact that modern Britain could not treat
ireland as Germany has treated Poland
without violating sentiments of her own
people"
To United States anti-English India
sympathizers: 'The Indian Agent Gen.
eral in Washington says, in defending
the right Of his people to independence,
that they have been nourished on the