HOW GERMANY
SUPPRESSED
WAR NEWS
BERLIN, March 11 (Correspond
ence of The Associated Press).-—Re
velations of the “stupidity and cun
ning” of German newspaper censor
ship which for more than four years
obsessed 70,000,000 people with the
hope of an impossible victory, hid
from them the news of Prussian de
feats and at last contributed to the
downfall of the structure of pretence
» it had raised, are brought out here in
a remarkable pamphlet said to have
been inspired by Dr. Wilhelm Mueh
lon, formerly director of the Krupp
Works, whose expose of Germany in
1918 as the real instigator of the war,
sent him into voluntary exile in
Switzerland.”
The pamphlet entitled “How We
Were Lied To,” is published ostensi
bly under the name of Kurt Muehsam,
a former Austro-German war corres
pondent. It is filled with instances
of military duplicity, showing the ef
forts that were made to conceal from
the German people everything of a
discouraging nature that had to do
with the war.
Newspaper editors, according to the
document, were forbidden under dire
penalties to discuss any subject relat
ing to the war without the approval
of hundreds of government censors
operating through 21 newspaper
bureaus and various branches of the
government. The Lusitania sinking
and the submarine controversy with
the United States was so skillfully
manoeuvered in the press that for
many monfhs the people were led to
believe that the negotiations were
taking “a course very favorable to
us.”
Onlv such news was published as
the militarists thought would favor
ably affect public opinion and to carry
out this purpose, the pamphlet points
out’, all kinds of falsities were em
ployed. Secretary Lansing, for in
stance, was reported as beingMll and
on the verge of leaving office. A
hopeless breach was also said to have
arisen between the American secre
tary of state and President Wil3on.
These items appearing in all of the
. German papers and bearing the appar
ent sanction of the authorities were
readily believed by the populace.
Dr. Muehlon who, in his earlier re
velations accused the then Emperor
William of having issued the order
“take no more prisoners,” points out
the astonishing fact that not once in
all of the German war reports can be
found any admission that the first
battle of the Manre was a German
defeat. The only thing that the Ger
man high command was able to re
port about the terrible reverse was
disguised in the words: “In the west
ern theatre of war the operations, de
tails of which cannot yet be publish
ed, have led to a new battle which is
developing favorably. Reports spread
by the enemy unfavorable to us, are
false.”
The foi'mer head of the great
munition plant at Essen who possess
ed complete information as to the op
erations of the military authorities
here declared that “there was hardly
a day during all the long war when
the editorial offices of the German
daily press wbre not ‘honored’ by the
receipt of confidential communica
tions. orders and prohibitions from
tlie censorship authorities, calculated
to limit free expression of opinion on
the most vital questions and ultimate
ly to throttle it."
The Germans, for instance, were
never to be charged with conducting
a ‘‘ruthless” U-boat war but rather an
“unlimited” or “boundless” war. De
scriptions of devastation in France
and Belgium were forbidden and all
references to barbism and wanton
destruction were taboo, with the sig
nificant expression: “The army knows
when to use force and when to be
mild.” Details of the closing down
of factories, coal and food shortages,
poor crops and the employment of
prisoners of war In mines and muni
tion plants were suppressed as were
also reports of street disorders, un
rest and strikes.
Referring to the time when hun
dreds were dying daily in Turkey
from starvation and the collapse of
the Ottoman army seemed imminent
and when Germany was sending vast
quantises of food and munitions and
heavy reinforcemnts of troops to the
Near East, Dr. Muehlon recalls the
fact that in those dark days ‘the Ger
man people were fed upon roseate ac
counts of conditions in Turkey, that
the Sultan’s army was ‘strong and
sufficient’ and the Turks were a 'val
uable ally.’ With the enormous mass
es of troops that we had to send to
Turkey,” continues the pamphlet, “it
was pretty strong to suggest to the
press that the Turkish army reserve
was adequate. It was a deliberate al
tering of facts.”
It must be understood, writes Dr.
Muehlon’s collaborator, that all the
-.....nhir, mcrul'iHnnQ iimlpr which
tl;e newspapers were operating were
unknown to the people. The distor
tion of facts was thus made easy for
every editor. He was encouraged to
that, notwithstanding that the allies
were sinking German submarines as
fast as they could be built, “the num
ber of new German U-boats is four
times greater than the losses. Our
submersible fleet has grown extraord
inarily during the war. The press is
to picture the submarine warfare as a
means of shortening the struggle and
not as a measure of retaliation or a
weapon to starve our foes.
After months of deception in try
ing to convince the people that Am
erica .would never enter the war, as
serts the Krupp director, when Presi
dent Wilson sent his ultimatum, the
German press very readily executed
an “about face”' and endeavored to
minimize the Unite States as a pos
sible adversary. Quoting from the
pamphlet: “The entry of America
would mean little from a naval stand
point. Looked at from all angles, it
would be possible for her to use only
a few torpedo boat destroyers and a
few, small, slow cruisers which
might, perhaps, be used as convoys.
The United Staes has built no armor
ed cruisers, which are decisive in
maritime warfare. For the transport
of an army corps of 30,000 men, 75
steamships of 4,000 tons each are
necessary. For the transport of 100,
000 soldiers with nothing but their
marching equipment, 400,000 tons
would be necessary for the double
trip.”
Even after the United States had
landed more than 1,500,000 men in
France, Dr. Muehlon declares, the
......
German papers continued their cam
paign of falsity and delusion. The
diplomatic intercourse between Ger
many and the United States during
the two years preceding America’s
entry into the war is set forth In the
pamphlet with interesting references
to Count von Bernstonff and his mili
tary and naval attaches, Boy-Ed and
von Papen. in Washington. It was
given out as “established” that the
former ambassador, and not Dr. Zim
merman, the German foreign secre
tary, had conducted the correspond
ence with Heinrich von Eckhardt,
former German minister to Mexico,
looking to an alliance between Japan,
Germany and Mexico if the United
States entered the war. German
newspapers were cautioned never to
use “the unfortunate expression
‘Zimmerman letter’ ” because it was
believed Si1*8 might lead to a sever
ance’ of diplomatic relations between
Berlin and Washington.
After the United States actually
had entered the war the censors per
mitted such statements as "the dam
age to German ship lying in American
harbors had been carried out to our
satisfaction. For example, the giant
steamship Vaterland had been made
wholly unusable. Even the sketches
of the turbine construction have been
destroyed.”
An interesting sidelight on the
psychological view the average Ger
man was permitted of the American
situation is shown in the following
summarization by Dr. Muehlon: “At
the beginning of the war America was
inimical to Germany. But this situa
tion was improved. After the Lusi
tania things got worse again. Then
an improvement set in because Am
erica had such cause for complaint
against England. At the time of ihe
breach of diplomatic relations the
impression prevailed that the people
did not want war with Germany.
“Wilson has a more strongly auto
cratic position than any European
ruler. Since he is English in his up
bringing he knows little or nothing
about German things and has no use
for Germans. Undoubtedly he has
been against us from the outset.
Often, however, he has had to guard
the interest of American high
finances. Wilson himself has an un
bribable character. He did not labor
to bring about war with German,
since there does not exist a positive
desire for war.
“The impression in America is gen
eral that his peace intentions were
serious and honorable. He wanted to
become the peace president, but the
breach of relations was necessary for
him for the maintenance of Amrican
prestige. In the war between Am
erica and German the financial sup
port of the entente by America will
be great. In a warlike way. however,
Americans can never become danger
ous for us either on land or water.
“Lansing is an outspoken German
hater. He is the great friend of Eng
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land and always was for participation
in the war for America. His voice can
never mean much for us. Negotia
tions with America are no longer pos
sible for us. It wanted the war and
that is its affair.”
The mesmeric spell which had been
cast upon the people as the result of
reading daily “an unbroken chain of
victorious announcements,” Dr. Mueh
lon points out, was dissipated when
Foreign Secretary von Kuehlmann de
clared publicly that the war could not
be won "militarily.” It cost von
Kuehlmann his post but it awakened
the German people to the fact that
they were on the precipice of national
disaster. Thereafter the censors per
mitted less optimistic and bombastic
news reports.
Loss of the war was charged by
the former Krupp expert to two grave
mistakes by von Ludendorff, describ
ed aB the “brains of the Germany
army,” in his failure, first, correctly
to estimate the wonderful possibili
ties of the American troop transport
and his false assumption that Marshal
Foch’s resrve army had ceased to
exist in June, 1918. Ludendorff, he
said, gambled with the existence of
Germany. He was like a jockey in a
long race who forced his horse far
ahead of the rest of the field and who,
toward the end, when the others be
gan to gain with their carefully re
served strength, used “whip and
spurs in a desperate effort to win,
virtually killed his mount and yet lost
after all.”
INDIANSCUT* YUCCA
BLADES FOR PALM SUNDAY
JUAREZ, Mex., April 15 (by Asso
ciated Press).—Yucca blades supplant
palm leaves .in the Palm Sunday ob
servance at the old mission here.
Palms are difficult to obtain because
of the interrupted rail communica
tions to the south from which place
the palms were sent in the past. In
stead the Indians go to the mountains
and cut great shocks of the long,
sharply pointed yucca blades and
these are blessed by the priest and
given to the congregation on Palm
Sunday.
-- ♦
Best coffee in town at the City
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■“Phone 143
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