Fourth Front

Two years ago, when the Italian radio station at Bari was engaged daily in shooting revolt-inciting broadcasts at the Arabs in the Near East, British Broadcasting Corp. decided to have a go at the blighters. The first BBC bulletin in Arabic was not too bright: it told how the British had executed twelve prominent Arabs for riotous assembly. Since then BBC has got the hang of the Eastern propaganda game. It now issues The Arabic Listener for fortnightly distribution wherever Arabic is heard by radio.

On the propagandist Fourth Front, as important as the military, economic and diplomatic fronts, BBC puts out 100,000 foreign-language words a day in everything from Magyar to Hindustani. This keeps a staff of 300 busy with 21 daily foreign broadcasts.

On April Fool's Day, three weeks ago, BBC's German program included a phony Hitler broadcast: "America needs an outlet to the sea. I've never disputed that. . . . But in the U. S. there live national minorities cut off from their European homelands. In Chicago alone there are 324,000 Czechs ... in the well-known city of New York there are 476,000 Poles. . . . I'm very grateful to Mr. Roosevelt for his interest in European affairs: I'm proving my gratitude by declaring the German protectorate over the U. S. I shall make America a blooming garden. New York, today an insignificant port, will become a centre of world trade." Without pretending to play April Fool, Germany feeds its own people skits like a recent one in which a recruiting captain in Nigeria complained to the Resident Commissioner about the difficulties of rounding up blackamoors for the Army. Says the R. C. : "I am doing my best. . . . Do you see that lanky nigger? He tried to get away. He is just about to be hanged." The captain: "It is interesting to watch the effect on the eyes, don't you think? See how they roll. The foam at the mouth is rather amusing, too." The scene changes and a "Lord Fisher" says to Colonial Secretary Malcolm MacDonald: "We are very pleased with the way things are going. Vickers' shares are up 20%." MacDonald: "Incidentally, 20% of the niggers died on the way across. What a droll coincidence!" Working overtime last week was Germany's English broadcaster Lord Haw-Haw, tentatively identified as William Joyce, Anglo-American-Irish fascist (TIME, March 11). CBS listeners picked up a typical Haw -Haw news bulletin following the Scandinavian invasion (see p. 19): "The New York paper, Evening Star,* writes: that it is learned that British troop ships with several divisions aboard have left England and were at present on the high seas. These ships were said to be intending to land troops, either in Norway or in Holland. The Evening Star is of the opinion that the landing of British troops in Holland is more probable, as Britain could scarcely hope to dislodge the Germans in Norway." Germany, which sends out five times as much in English as Great Britain does in German, has launched a new menace: a woman, immediately dubbed Lady Hee-Hee, who says things like: "Berlin shops are displaying lovely undies, which make one's mouth water." Lady Hee-Hee has not yet been identified. She may be William Joyce's second wife--or she may be any one of numerous Britons in Berlin, technically prisoners of war but carefree, well-heeled and seen everywhere.

* There is no such. The Washington (evening) Star did carry some speculation to that effect.

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