Documentary News Letter (1942-1943)

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1942 of The Times leader writer when he said "An enormous and rewarding task of popularisation awaits the propagandist on the home front ; well done, it will have a marked effect in renewing confidence in the determination of the Government to garner the fruits of the victory at home as well as in the field. But first of all the Government's endorsement is required. What is as yet only in the stage of reports must be turned into a programme"*. The Times did not turn aside to inquire which Government it refers to, or whether the '"endorsement** is to be that of a virtually self-elected House of Commons or that of the people at large ; but in any case it does show a stage of enlightenment at which the relationship between the immediate determination to win the war, and the equally immediate determination to win the war in terms of winning the peace, are equated. That is why it is important that propagandists must stress at all points in their activities those wartime measures which not merely represent an immediate battle-winning weapon, but also a revolution in our social structure and our way of life. That is why the failure of the present Government (presumably under the reactionary influence of the 1922 Committee and of other less obviously reactionary bodies), to undertake anything other than temporary measures of the most superficial nature instead of a direct nationalisation of essential public services, has been regarded by ordinary people as a failure to face up to wartime issues. A Decent Future We repeat once again that the feelings or attitudes of the British people may be also considered to be the feelings of all people in all countries who believe in a decent future. The second point at issue is the immediate action to be taken on cessation of hostilities. It is now becoming almost too much of a truism that the cessation of hostilities must on no account coincide with the cessation of effort. People are beginning so completely to accept this truism that one can see a million feet being placed on a million desks and a million mouths opening in a gigantic and complacent yawn the moment the bogus pens dipped in invisible ink place the bogus signatures on the ersatz notepaper. It is vitally important to realise that all the propaganda in the world will not avoid factual relaxation the moment armistice is signed if the expression of the people's will through their Governments has not been strong enough to signal a real faith in the future. The solution to this problem is not entirely to be found in the speeches of Ministers or Presidents. It is not entirely to be found in the reports of Planning Committees. It is only to be found in action. Not merely action as seen in the sticking of however many gratifying bayonets into however many unwilling Axis bellies. It is action in the sphere of the common life of the people, be they soldiers or sailors or airmen or factory workers or housewives or cadets or schoolchildren or research workers or even civil servants. It is action which in its carrying out makes it plain that the terms of the Atlantic Charter and the Four Freedoms are not merely words spoken or signatures appended, but ideas translated into fact and action. We ourselves believe that the war cannot be won in a true sense unless these ideas are translated into fact and action ; but we are also aware that the war could be won in a military sense without these ideas being taken into consideration. In other words, it is perfectly possible to beat Hitler and Mussolini and Hirohito and grind them into the dust, while at the same time perpetuating all the ideas for which they stand (though of course a different ideology would be used). Propaganda is therefore at the cross roads. Both in Great Britain and the United States it is stultified because the intentions oi Governmental factions which, despite democratic machinery, cannot be truthfully said to represent the intentions of the people, are such that really forthright propaganda is frowned on. This is serious, because it so happens that the intentions of the Governments of the U.S.S.R. and China coincide more and more closely with the intentions of the people of those nations, and it must be noted that todav the United Nations depend in great and increasing measure on the strength of China and the U.S.S.R. The Armistice is signed. The military war has been won. What now? There is an immediate job to be done. The whole of Europe is; now the responsibility of the United Nations. The peoples of the occupied countries are very busy killing Germans, Italians and Japanese, either by direct methods or through torture. Typhus and bubonic plague are sweeping westwards from the hinterlands of Asia (you remember how Nansen's organisation only saved us from these at the last second after the last war). Political instability is becoming an increasing and anarchic danger to the victorious powers of the West. How are you, how are we, going to face this problem? We shall not be able to face it if we have not, in the first place, reorientated our own social life and our own faith in active democracy, and in the second place planned, early on, our action as regards immediate post-war policy. Previous Planning Today the Western hemisphere is publicly and acutely conscious of its duty towards the world as regards the supply of food and medical necessities to Europe and Asia immediately hostilities cease. But what about an important matter which should not only go hand in hand with these physical supplies but could also be a powerful factor in ensuring the best use of them? There is a vital job for propaganda to do and it cannot be done without previous planning. The weapons at our command in this respect are the press, the radio and the film, and all of them must be brought into line. If we are not experts in press propaganda or radio propaganda, we know at least as regards radio that we should have control of the wavelengths of the world, and that they should be able to reach everyone with a radio set with messages not merely, God save the mark, of hope, but also of direct moment-to-moment information and instruction. As far as film is concerned, in Europe and Eurasia alone we, the United Nations, should commandeer every cinema and every projector. With the help of every Disney short to leaven the programmes, we should project to the people constant and consistent programmes of information and instruction. These would in the first place explain in general terms to those millions who have been cut off from direct information by their temporary Axis masters, what exactly has happened and is happening; and secondly, would give them direct instruction and information about the symptoms of epidemic diseases and how to deal with them, the necessary foods to counteract those symptoms of starvation and malnutrition which even as you read this are stunting and deforming the children of Europe and of Asia. There would also be films which would indicate the plans of the victorious peoples not for a vague and cloudy future but for immediate action within the next six months. Opinion and Action The answer is a double one. Basically it is the opinion and action of ordinary people which counts, but the power of propaganda as an active weapon is not merely to strengthen public opinion, but also to help to integrate it where it is incoherent, and to confirm it in well doing. The publication of the Beveridge Report is a case in point. That it should appear at all is in itself good propaganda and it is heartening to know that the B.B.C. foreign broadcasts have been plugging it very hard. In our own country, despite the thinly disguised activities oi' anti-Beveridge elements, the Report has meant much more than a social charter specific enough to be within our immediate powers. It has begun that process of definite (as opposed to indefinite or woolly) thinking on the part of ordinary people which is in itself the first weapon of true and active democracy. To strengthen and confirm this is an immediate job for the propagandists, and as far as films go not merely the Report itself but also its many important implications provide a fertile field for forthright and imaginative work. But there must be no delay, for nowadays tunc wans for no man, no party, no groups of vested interests and for no Government which does not in fact, as well as in protestation, represent the will of the people.