How the Nations Waged War: A companion volume to "How the War Began"Kennedy, J. M. (John McFarland)
History
How the Nations Waged War: A companion volume to "How the War Began"
Kennedy, J. M. (John McFarland)
World War, 1914-1918
The result of this feature of this Press campaign was that many
countries with which the Allies wished to stand well, such as Italy,
Turkey, Spain, and Servia, continually received the impression that
the German cause, German might, and German organisation were about to
triumph in 1914 as they had in 1870. To some extent the scheme did
not succeed. When, for instance, unrest was noticed among the natives
in the French sphere of interest in Morocco, the Spaniards in the
neighbouring sphere offered voluntarily to put it down, as France had
withdrawn many of her troops. In Italy, again, the feeling in favour of
the Allies had been so pronounced from the very beginning that not even
telegrams from Berlin could shake it. In Turkey, on the other hand, it
was difficult, if not, indeed, impossible, to have the German "news"
corrected; and the utmost endeavours were openly made by German agents
to induce the Turks to strike at the Allies either by an invasion
of Egypt, an attack on Suez Canal shipping, or a raid into Southern
Russia. It is significant enough that when the German battleship
_Goeben_ eluded the British squadron in the Mediterranean, she sought
shelter, not in any of the ports of Germany's ally, Austria--which at
the time were not beyond her reach--but under the shelter of Turkish
forts in the Dardanelles. This incident is referred to in a subsequent
chapter.
Although small and not very important items of news appeared from time
to time in the British and French Press respecting the operations of
the German Press Bureau (a department of the Foreign Office), it was
not until early in September that anything like a complete account
of the ramifications of this Bureau was made known. On September
3rd a White Paper was issued containing dispatches from Sir E.
Goschen, British Ambassador in Berlin, to Sir Edward Grey. These
communications began in February, 1914, and continued until June.
They showed conclusively that a secret undertaking had been entered
into which had for its object the influencing of the Press of foreign
countries, partly in the interest of German exporters and partly
in order that German influence generally might be spread. It is, of
course, impossible to quote at all fully from these very interesting
dispatches of Sir E. Goschen, but one or two of them may be mentioned.
In his first dispatch, sent on February 27th, our Ambassador at Berlin
enclosed the following report:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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