propaganda

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1.4.42 [George Orwell]

April 1, 2012 in Political, Spain, War-time, propaganda, spanish civil war by orwelldiaries

Greatly depressed by the apparent failure of the Cripps mission.  Most of the Indians seem down in the mouth about it too. Even the ones who hate England want a solution, I think. [I believe, however, that in spite of the “take it or leave it” with which our government started off, the terms will actually be modified, perhaps in response to pressure at this end.] Some think the Russians are behind the Cripps plan and that this accounts for Cripps’s confidence in putting forward something so apparently uninviting. Since they are not in the war against Japan the Russians cannot have any official attitude about the Indian affair, but they may serve out a directive to their followers, for whom it will get round to other pro-Russians. No sign yet from the English Communist party, whose behaviour might give a clue to the Russian attitude. It is on this kind of guesswork that we have to frame our propaganda, no clear or useful directive ever being handed out from above.

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14.3.41 [George Orwell]

March 14, 2011 in Abyssinia, Balkans, Black Sea, Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, Haffner, Italy, Libya, Metaxas, Norway, Political, Salonika, Sicily, Tripoli, Turkey, U.S.A., War-time, Wavell, berlin, bombs, planes, propaganda, public opinion by orwelldiaries

For the last few days there have been rumours everywhere, also hints in the papers, that “something is going to happen” in the Balkans, i.e. that we are going to send an expeditionary force to Greece.  If so, it must presumably be the army now in Libya, or the bulk of it.[1]  I had heard a month back that Metaxas [2] before he died asked us for 10 divisions and we offered him 4.  It seems a terribly dangerous thing to risk an army anywhere west of the Straits.  To have any worthwhile ideas about the strategy of such a campaign, one would have to know how many men Wavell disposes of and how many are needed to hold Libya, how the shipping position stands, what the communications from Bulgaria into Greece are like, how much of their mechanised stuff the Germans have managed to bring across Europe, and who effectively controls the sea between Sicily and Tripoli.  It would be an appalling disaster if while our own main force was bogged in Salonika the Germans managed to cross the sea from Sicily and win back all the Italians have lost.  Everyone who thinks of the matter is torn both ways.  To place an army in Greece is a tremendous risk and doesn’t offer much positive gain, except that once Turkey is involved our warships can enter the Black Sea: on the other hand if we let Greece down we have demonstrated once and for all that we can’t and won’t help any European nation to keep its independence.  The thing I fear most is half-hearted intervention and a ghastly failure, as in Norway.  I am in favour of putting all our eggs in one basket and risking a big defeat, because I don’t think any defeat or victory in the narrow military sense matters so much as demonstrating that we are the side of the weak against the strong.

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1.7.40 [George Orwell]

July 1, 2010 in Balbo, Durutti, Express, Fritsch, Mola, News Chronicle, Political, RAF, Spain, Spanish, Vidal, War-time, advertisements, newspapers, propaganda by orwelldiaries

Newspapers now reduced to 6 pages, i.e., 3 sheets[1]. Print reduced in size. Rough analysis of to-day’s News-Chronicle: 6 pages = 48 columns. Of these (excluding small adverts. besides headlines on front page) 15 columns or nearly one third are adverts. About 1½ columns of this are taken up in notices of situations vacant, etc., but the greater part of the ad.s are for more or less useless consumption goods. The financial columns also overlap with the advertisements, some of the reports of directors’ meetings, etc., probably being paid for by the companies themselves.

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27.6.40 [George Orwell]

June 27, 2010 in Britain, Churchill, Communism, Falangist, France, Franco, Hitler, I.L.P., Italy, L. H. Myers, MOI, Madrid, Munich, Mussolini, New Leader, Petain, Political, Rab Butler, Russia, Russo-German pact, Samuel Hoare, Spanish, Stalin, Tangier, U.S.S.R., War-time, air raid, all clear, aristocracy, german, occupation, propaganda, recruiting campaign, ruling class by orwelldiaries

It appears that the night before last, during the air-raid alarm, many people all over London were woken by the All Clear signal, took that for a warning and went to the shelters and stayed there till morning, waiting for the All Clear. This after ten months of war and God knows how many explanations of the air-raid precautions.

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24.6.40 [George Orwell]

June 24, 2010 in Canada, Churchill, Duff-Cooper, Eileen, England, Flandin, France, Frenbch, French Communists, German armistice, Gwen, Hitler, LDV, Laval, Manifesto of Plain Men, Mass Observation, News Chronicle, Petain, Political, Richard Acland, Russia, Spain, Stalin, Verdun, War-time, capitalists, class, collaboration, conquest, demotic speech, left, pacifist, patriots, propaganda, red army, revolution, revolutionary government, revolutionary war, revolvers, right, speeches, winter by orwelldiaries

The German armistice terms are much as expected. . . . What is interesting about the whole thing is the extent to which the traditional pattern of loyalties and honour is breaking down. Pétain, ironically enough, is the originator (at Verdun) of the phrase “ils ne passeront pas”, so long an anti-Fascist slogan. Twenty years ago any Frenchman who would have signed such an armistice would have had to be either an extreme leftwinger or an extreme pacifist, and even then there would have been misgivings. Now the people who are virtually changing sides in the middle of the war are the professional patriots. To Pétain, Laval[1], Flandin[2] and Co. the whole war must have seemed like a lunatic internecine struggle at the moment when your real enemy is waiting to slosh you. . . . It is therefore practically certain that high-up influences in England are preparing for a similar sell-out, and while e.g. — is at — there is no certainty that they won’t succeed even without the invasion of England. The one good thing about the whole business is that the bottom is being knocked out of Hitler’s pretence of being the poor man’s friend. The people actually willing to do a deal with him are bankers, generals, bishops, kings, big industrialists, etc., etc. . . . . Hitler is a leader of tremendous counterattack of the capitalist class, which is forming itself into a vast corporation, losing its privileges to some extent in doing so, but still retaining its power over the working class. When it comes to resisting such an attack as this, anyone who is of the capitalist class must be treacherous or half-treacherous, and will swallow the most fearful indignities rather than put up a real fight. . . . whichever way one looks, whether it is at the wider strategic aspects or the most petty details of local defence, one sees that any real struggle means revolution. Churchill evidently can’t see or won’t accept this, so he will have to go. But whether he goes in time to save England from conquest depends on how quickly the people at large can grasp the essentials. What I fear is that they will never move until it is too late.

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