‘Paper, Sir

PAPER, SIR.

It is difficult to imagine what could be more despicable than the attitude of the capitalist Press during the past year. The persistent and ever more complete suppression of truth, the distortion of facts, the hypocrisy, the false and maudlin sentiment, the stupid advice to the workers, the idiotic praise of everything British and the belittling of the same thing when done by the alien, all make it increasingly obvious that the “glorious institution,” the capitalist Press, is one gross insult to the intelligence of the people. It is surely the height of fatuity for the home Press to pretend that it is, above all, the German people that is being duped by a servile journalism, as is suggested by the “Daily Chronicle” in the following extract:

“The German nation, deprived, as it is, of any news from abroad, is entirely under the influence of Government publications and of the information which the Press is allowed to publish. No people can possibly escape psychological pressure of this kind, brought to bear upon them day after day without cessation or variety. A long period of time must elapse before the light of truth can break through the veil of prejudice and misconception which has been so carefully spread by the rulers of the country.”

No intelligent being can rise from the perusal of such a statement without reflecting bitterly that our own case must be worse, since the home Press take it for granted that their own readers are such asses as not even to know they have the blinkers on, or such idiots as not even to feel that they are being further blinded by having copious supplies of All-British dust thrown into their weary eyes.

W.