27. Other Lies

With such profusion was falsehood sown that it would be impossible at this already distant date to gather in the whole crop. A mere assertion, even from a private individual, was often enough to set the ball rolling. The Press was only too grateful for any suggestion which might release another flood of lies, and the Government, when it was not concerned with its own subterfuges, was always ready, by disowning responsibility, to avoid direct denial of popular lies.

A few cases of some less important and some more ridiculous talcs may be given.

The Governess.

Almost every foreign governess or waiter in the country was under grave suspicion, and numberless were the stories invented about them. The best edition of the governess story is given by Sir Basil Thomson ; ' A classic version was that the governess was missing from the midday meal, and that when the family came to open her trunks, they discovered under a false bottom a store of high-explosive bombs. Everyone who told this story knew the woman’s employer; some had even seen the governess herself in happier days: “ Such a nice, quiet person, so fond of the children; but now one comes to think of it, there was something in her face, impossible to describe, but a something.”

' Pfople, by Sir Basil Thomson.

15} The Waiter.

A Swiss waiter who had drawn on a menu-card a plan of the tables in the hotel dining-room where he was in charge was actually brought in hot haste to Scotland Yard on the urgent representations of a visitor to the hotel, who was convinced that the plan was of military importance.

A German servant girl at Bearsden, near Glasgow, with a trunk full of plans and photographs, was another fabrication.

Enamelled Advertisements.

There was a report that enamelled iron advertisements for “ Maggi soup,” which were attached to hoardings in Belgium, were unscrewed by German officers in order that they might read the information about local resources which was painted in German on the back by spies who had preceded them. Whether this was true or not, it was generally accepted, and screwdriver parties were formed in the London suburbs for the examination of the backs of enamelled advertisements.

Concrete Platforms.

The emplacements laid down for guns at Maubeuge, made in the shape of tennis-courts, led to an amazingly widespread belief that all hard courts, paved back gardens, or concrete roofs were designed for this purpose. Anyone who possessed one of these came under suspicion, not only in the British Isles but in America, and the scare actually spread to California.

The Bystander had a cartoon in March 1915 of Bernhardi writing his books, a sword in his teeth and a revolver in his left hand, on the wall a plan labelled “ proposed concrete bed at Golders Green.”

The Tubes.

The Tube as a refuge from Zeppelin raids naturally came in for attention. Sir Basil Thomson gives one of the forms of an invention in this connection.

An English nurse had brought a German officer back from death’s door. In a burst of gratitude, he said, at parting, “ I must not tell you more, but beware of the Tubes in April (1915).” As time wore on the date was shifted forward month by month. We took the trouble to trace this story from mouth to mouth until we reached the second mistress in a London boarding-school. She declared that she had heard it from the charwoman who cleaned the school, but that lady stoutly denied she had ever told so ridiculous a story.

Bombing of Hospitals.

In May 1918 the Press was filled with articles of the most violent indignation at the deliberate bombing of hospitals by the Germans. The Times (May 24, 1918), said : “ It was on a par with all the abominations that have caused the German name to stink in the nostrils of humanity since the war began, and will cause it to stink while memory endures,” and recommended, after they had been vanquished, “ ostracism from the society of civilized nations.” There was a Punch cartoon, and the rest of the Press yelled. The soldiers, however, as usual, did not indulge in hysterics, and explained the matter of the bombing of the hospitals at Etaples, after which the following appeared in a leader published by the Manchester Guardian.

Towards the end of last month and the beginning of this public opinion here—and, for the matter of that, we imagine in most other countries too—was horrified by messages from correspondents in France who described the deliberate bombing of British hospitals by German airmen. In one case the correspondent asserted categorically that there could have been no mistake ; the hospitals, and not anything of military value, were the objects at whose destruction the raiders aimed. Well might such news cause even a fiercer fire of indignation than now burns against the Germans, since inhumanity could reach no lower depth than an attack on the sick and wounded and those who minister to them. There was no apparent room to doubt the accuracy of these reports, for there is a censorship in the field which not only prevents the correspondent from saying anything that it disapproves, but can overtake an error if by some mischance he has fallen, as he may easily do, into inaccuracy. So long, then, as these reports arrived and went uncorrected, it was right to suppose that they represented the farts. But we believe it is the view of the military authorities that there is no sufficient evidence to show that these were deliberate attacks on hospitals. The military view is that hospitals must sometimes, on both sides of the front, be placed near objects of military importance, such as railways or camps or ammunition dumps, and that in a night raid hospitals run the risk of being hit when the military objects round them are attacked. But if this is the authoritative military view, how comes it that correspondents were allowed to send misleading messages to this country, or that when messages had been sent, steps were not taken to remove the impression they had caused ? Our case against the Germans is strong enough in all conscience, and thoroughly established. We can afford to do justice even to them, and we ought to do no less.

“ Manchester Guardian,” June 15, 1918.

The constant assertion that on no occasion were hospital ships used for the carrying of any war material or soldiers was contrary to fact.

The Crown Prince.

The German Crown Prince, when he was not dead, was always represented as stealing valuables from French chateaux. The following is a sample of what it was thought necessary to write on this subject:

The Crown Prince of Prussia may yet be immortalized as a prince among burglars and a burglar among princes ! . . . Germany makes war in a manner that would have commended itself to Bill Sikes, and the Kaiser’s eldest son, in his eagerness to secure the “ swag,” has merited the right to be considered an imperial Fagin. . . . This modern Germany, whose spirit is epitomized in the Crown Prince, fights like a valiant blackguard. It will die like a hero, but it will murder like an apache and will steal like a mean pickpocket.

Thefts by the Crown Prince, " Daily Express,” November i, 1914.

An article appeared in La Nouve/le Revue in 1915, written by an Irish lady whose friend had witnessed a secret ceremony at Menin at which “ the German Crown Prince was crowned King of Belgium in the marketplace.” This was reproduced in the English Press.

Tuberculosis Germs.

The Germans were accused of having inoculated French prisoners with tuberculosis germs. So emphatic was this assertion that a question was asked in Parliament on the subject on April 24, 1917. The Government, however, disclaimed having any information on the subject, and the story was dropped.

The Patriotic Liar.

The method of the patriotic liar can be illustrated by the case of a clergyman, who informed the Manchester Geographical Society on October 7, 1914: “You will hear only one hundredth part of the actual atrocities this war has produced. The civilized world could not stand the truth. It will never hear it. There are.

up and down England to-day, scores—I am understating the number—of Belgian girls who have had their hands cut off. That is nothing to what we could tell you.” Later in the same month the reverend gentleman wrote to the Daily News, asking, “ Will anyone who has actually seen such cases here in England send me full particulars ? ” He had made his statement first and was endeavouring to get his evidence afterwards.

Miners Buried Alive.

On August 29th the Da/Ty Citi's^en of Glasgow had a paragraph headed “ Miners Buried Alive ! Enemy Block Shafts of Belgian Pits.” On December ist the Daily Citie^en (without heading the paragraph) gave the statement of M. Lombard (General Secretary of the Belgian Miners) to the Executive of the Miners’ Federation of Great Britain, in which he “ denied that there was any truth in the rumour circulated so freely in this country that the Germans had shut up the pit mouths in various places, thus suffocating miners underground.”

War News for the U.S.A.

A former agent of the Standard Oil Company, living at Crieff, Scotland, supplied “ war news ” to the U.S.A. The Stratheam Herald, in December 1914, gave some samples. There was, of course, the handless Belgian baby who had arrived in Glasgow.

Over a hundred Germans were found with cages full of homing pigeons in Glasgow and Edinburgh.

But the most elaborate bit of news was that when the British Army had to retreat in France about a month ago. General French asked for reinforcements from some of the French Generals, and was refused. Kitchener went over to the Continent the next day, and the only excuse was that the French troops were tired. Upon investigation, however, it was found that two of the French Generals had German wives. Kitchener ordered two of them to be shot.

A Soldier’s Letter.

At a recent meeting in the North of England, an ex-service man in the audience related the following experience:

He was wounded and taken prisoner on the Western front, and for some time was in hospital in Germany. When well on the road to recovery, he learned that he was to be removed from the hospital, as beds were wanted for wounded Germans, and that he was being sent to a special camp for convalescents. In a short note to his relatives he informed them of the removal.

On returning home after the war, he was amazed to find that the local Press had obtained permission from his people to use the letter, and had woven around it an “ atrocity ” story telling how, when at the point of death, he had been taken from bed in order to make room for a slightly wounded German, and had been sent on a journey of very many miles to a camp, where his wounds could not possibly receive proper attention, so there was practically no chance of his recovery owing to this barbarism on the part of the Germans.

Faked German Order.

A private serving in the 24th Division relates how, in 1917, while in the Somme area, a typed copy of a translation of an alleged German order was circulated among the troops. The order required German women to cohabit with civilians and soldiers on leave so that there might be no shortage of children to make up for war losses. Rewards were offered for those who zealously carried out the order. Typed out by official machines, the circular was posted up in the canteens.

Russian Arsenal Destroyed.

On September 15, 1915, in the Evening News, there were large headlines :

BLOW THAT CRIPPLED RUSSIA Only Arsenal Wrecked by Vast Explosion and there was a full description of how, through German spies and treachery, “ the Russian Woolwich had been blown to pieces.” “ Ochta was the Russian Woolwich, and much more than the Russian Woolwich. It was the only munition factory in the whole of Russia.”

It subsequently turned out that the Ochta explosion was not at an arsenal at all, but was due to an accident in a factory which had been temporarily turned into a munition factory. No German spies had had anything to do with it. It was an inconsiderable affair, and a small paragraph with the true version was inserted in a later issue of the paper.

Amusingly enough, in the same issue and on the very same page, there appeared a satirical article on “ The Rumour Microbe,” laughing at a man who said “ That a relative of his had a relation who had seen a Zeppelin come down on Hampstead Heath, and a man went to some stables and got out a number of horses, which towed it away.”

The careful perusal of the files of newspapers, British and foreign, during these four years, would yield an i6o FALSEHOOD IN WAR-TIME amazing harvest of falsehood. As the public mind is always impressed by anything that appears in print, the influence of the Press in inflaming one people against the other must have been very considerable, and in many people’s opinion very laudable.