true was an aggravation of their effect. A great part, perhaps, indeed, the greater part of all Germans condemned bitterly the Belgian deportations, just as the best minds of the nation condemned the new _Schrecklichkeit_ of the U-boat warfare, but they were helpless so long as their government was under the iron thumb of the military caste, and their helplessness increased their despair when they saw the opinion of the world embittered against their nation. There is plenty of German testimony to show how effective this enemy propaganda was. Siegfried Heckscher, Reichstag member and chief of the publicity department of the Hamburg-America Line, writing at the end of September, pointed out the need of a German propaganda ministry to counteract the attacks being made on Germany by the propaganda work under the direction of Lord Northcliffe. "The German practice of silence in the face of all the pronouncements of enemy statesmen cannot be borne any longer," said Herr Heckscher. "Anybody who watches the effect of the Northcliffe propaganda in foreign countries and in Germany can have only one opinion--that this silence is equivalent to a failure of German statesmanship. "With masterly skill every single speech of the English leaders is adapted not only to its effect in England, but also to its influence on public opinion among the neutrals and also, and especially, in Germany. * * * * Hundreds of thousands of Germans, reading a pronouncement by the President of the United States, ask themselves bitterly what the German Government will say. Thus there is formed a cloud of discontent and dark doubt, which, thanks to this Northcliffe propaganda, spreads itself more and more over the German people. * * * * "We try to protect our country from enemy espionage and from the work of agents and scoundrels, but with open eyes we leave it defenseless while a stream of poisonous speeches is poured over its people. "It will not, of course, do for enemy pronouncements of importance to be withheld from our people, but it is as necessary for our people as their daily bread that the Anglo-Franco-American influence should be met by the German view, and that the justice and greatness of the German cause and of the German idea should be brought into the clear, full light of day. Nor is defense sufficient. We must also aggressively champion our cause in the forum of the civilized world. "I repeat what I have said for years, that Reuter and the English news propaganda are mightier than the English fleet and more dangerous than the English army." The _Koelnische Volkszeitung_ echoed the demand for a propaganda ministry. It wrote: