The newspapers had been restarted; but they were no longer the organs
to which people had been accustomed. Printed from presses usually
employed for books, they could not be produced in anything approaching
the old quantities; and the break-up of communications had shattered
their organisation for the collection of information. They were mere
fly-sheets, consisting of two or three leaves of quarto size at the
largest and containing very little general news of any description.
Not only were they printed in small numbers, but the difficulties of
circulating the available copies were considerable; so that within a
very short time the greater part of the population had to depend upon
information passing orally from one to another.
This was the state into which Nordenholt had planned to bring them. His
agents, proceeding upon a carefully considered plan, formed centres
for the spread of rumours which grew more and more incredible as
they were magnified by repetition. Hostile invasions, the capture of
London, the assassination of the Premier, anarchist plots, earthquakes
which had interrupted the normal services of the country, all sorts of
catastrophes were invoked to account for the breakdown of the system
under which men had dwelt so long. But the period of rumours exhausted
the belief of the people. Very soon no one paid any attention to the
stories which, nevertheless, sped across the country in the form of
idle gossip.
Having thus manœuvred the inhabitants of England into a state of
total disbelief in rumour, Nordenholt made his next move. Hundreds of
aeroplanes ranged over the country, firing guns to attract attention
and then dropping showers of leaflets which were eagerly collected and
read. In these messages from the sky, a complete account was given of
the efforts which were being made in the North to save the situation.
Short articles upon the Nitrogen Area and its vital importance to the
food-supply were scattered broadcast; and by their clear language and
definite figures of production they carried conviction to the minds of
the readers. Here, at last, was reliable news.
No hint, of course, was given in these aerial bulletins of the real
purpose underlying the Nitrogen Area. Their whole tone was optimistic;
for Nordenholt wished to make his final blow the heavier by raising
hopes at first. Once his agents had assured him that the people
believed implicitly in his aeroplane news-service, he struck hard.
In my account of his explanation of his breaking-strain theory, I
have indicated roughly the general lines upon which his attack was
based. He had accomplished the breakdown of the social organism into
its component parts by the interruption of communications throughout
the land; but the final stage of the process was to be the isolation of
each individual from his fellows as far as that was possible.