MINISTRY OF INFORMATION,
SENATE HOUSE,
LONDON UNIVERSITY BUILDING,
MALET ST., W.C.1.

GP 39/438.

6th May, 1942.

Dear Robbie,

We talked on Monday about the consideration we have been giving within the Ministry to the Caricatures of Nazis and Fascists used in the printed propaganda we send Overseas. Most of our material features Hitler as a funny little man, maybe the result of artists being unable to resist the temptation to exploit his "Chaplinesque" appearance. So, like Little Willie in World War No.1, Adolf is usually presented as a ridiculous figure.

The time has come to review this attitude, particularly from the Overseas point of view, and the feeling is that our propaganda will gain in strength if we present Hitler as the personification of all the evil that Nazism stands for.

Then there is his boy friend Mussolini. Here I think there may be little wrong in portraying a small, inflated man, now tending to be shabby and down-at-heel - anything to impress that Mussolini is out of the game, merely Hitler's "office boy".

We would very much welcome Low's views on these suggestions. We know, of course, that he has recently introduced a new slant, a combination of an "intuition" figure, whose actions are contradicted by the woebegone "real" Hitler. An excellent idea, but difficult to apply to the many and varied schemes in which we use Caricatures.

A proposal of this kind is most difficult to outline in a letter, so if Low feels he can give us a hand, I should very much like to talk over the problem with him.

E.J.Robertson, Esq.,
"Daily Express"
London. E.C.4.

May 3th. 1942.

Dear Robertson,

I have your letter and enclosure from Royds. Here are my views :

Naturally I have often considered the point about the proper representation of Hitler and Mussolini in our cartoonists and I have always felt that it is bad psychologically to draw them as horrific "serious" figures. That gives them a sort of dignity and tends to inspire fear. Some American cartoonists draw H. and M. as monsters of brutality eight feet high with big hairy arms covered with whiskers, have dripping with blood, etc., I'm sure no one is more pleased at this than H. and M. themselves, for that is just the effect they have always striven, with all the arts of propaganda, to create among people just before they go out to defeat them. I have been looking at some "anti-Nazi" cartoons from Denmark current in 1937 showing Nazi leaders as dreadful powerful brutes. That kind of thing no doubt had the effect of building up the idea that Hitler was too, too, too powerful to resist, and contributed to the beating down of the moral front. Personally, I know that the cartoons of mine that got under their skins most were those which made them look like damned fools............ It should be remembered that the art of caricature is ridicule........ If precedents are any use, Gillray and Rowlandson on Napoleon were effective. Raemaekers and Will Dyson, two of the best cartoonists of the last war got their effects, not by dealing with personalities, but with the CONSEQUENCES of the personalities (scenes of destruction, cemeteries, trains full of bleeding corpses, shooting of hostages, etc.) There is a wide and fruitful field to be exploited there. I would love to have a crack at it, but it needs space to come off and it couldn't be done properly in the EVENTING STANDARD. ......... In short, I think the effect of building up Hitler and Mussolini as monsters of sin would turn out to be bathetic or merely ludicrous.

This not to say that they should be drawn as just pointlessly "funny". On the contrary, that kind of stuff is just the

t

tripe of fools. The right angle is: mean, spiteful little men
in possession of the means of destruction, with the horrific
emphasis on the dittoy. Of this conception has the force of being
the truth. (When you suggest to me that I might create "new"
versions, I am not conscious that I have pictured them in any
other way than that...which only goes to show.....)

These reflections apply to cartoons for the British public, not
for those intended for Overseas or foreign parts. But why does the
Ministry of Information of Information think that cartoons which
are effective and useful here must be equally effective and useful
abroad? So far as I am concerned, the temper of newspaper cartoons
here is influenced by local and time considerations largely, i.e. if
the news is depressing. I give them a cheerful humorous one, and so on.)
If I were drawing for Overseas or foreign propaganda, I should use a
different angle altogether and go on lines suited to the purpose in
view, examining the pictorial idiom of the country and stating my
ideas plainly to their understanding. There is a peculiar picture
language to every country, though few seem to realise it. I'm sure
half the cartoons that go from this country to Australia, for instance,
have little meaning for Australians, and vice versa.

Telephone Number : EUSton 4321.
Telegrams : MINIFORM, LONDON.

Any further communication should be
addressed to :-

THE DIRECTOR GENERAL
and the following reference should be
quoted :-

Your reference :

MINISTRY OF INFORMATION,
MALET STREET,
LONDON, W.C.I.

7th September, 1942.

Dear Mr. Low,

We have been approached by Mr. Paul Manning, European representative of the Newspaper Enterprise Association of America, with a request for assistance in connection with a series of features which he wishes to prepare for the more than 700 newspapers served by N.E.A. He wishes to illustrate by suitable drawings and letterpress the relations which are being established between the United States soldiers, airmen, marines and sailors now stationed in this country and members of the British fighting forces and civilians. He thinks that such a feature would do much to promote a friendly feeling between the United Kingdom and the United States as a whole. He is particularly eager to enlist your help in the matter and has asked us whether we could introduce him to you. I know how very busy you are, and how difficult it must be for you to add to your existing commitments. I wish, however, to say that this does strike us as being a valuable opportunity and if it were at all possible for you to assist Mr. Manning we do think that it would be in the national interest. If you should be willing to discuss the project with him to see whether you are able to assist him, perhaps you will let me know and I will ask him to call you up in order to arrange a meeting.

David Low, Esq.,
3, Rodburgh Road,
Golders Green, N.W.11.