Foreign News: Swastika & the Press

The Foreign Press Association, founded in 1906, enrols all the accredited foreign correspondents in Berlin. At the present time it includes about 135 men from 20 countries. Its president is Edgar Ansel Mowrer, who wrote last winter a shrewd analysis of the growth of reaction in Germany entitled Germany Puts the Clock Back. Last week President Mowrer called a sudden meeting of the Association. He reported that the German Government did not like his book. All sorts of wires were being pulled to force his resignation. Before returning to the U. S., Ambassador Sackett had called at the German Foreign Office and pointed out that seeking revenge on one newspaper correspondent was not likely to increase the prestige of the Hitler Government. Correspondent Mowrer added:

“My own stand is this: Freedom of correspondents must not be hampered by any kind of social or personal pressure provided they report the news on the basis of reliable information. To clarify this point I offer my resignation. Please decide for yourselves.”

The foreign correspondents voted 60 to 7 to stand by their president. Immediately came a threat from gnomelike Minister of Propaganda Goebbels that the Foreign Press Association would be abolished for its brashness.

While the existence of the Foreign Press Association trembled in the balance, the German Government embargoed Britain’s revered and mighty Manchester Guardian. Its crime: printing specific cases of the beating of Jews, Socialists, women, the most detailed of which came from the Guardian’s special correspondent in Frankfort. The last case so reported was that of a street peddler sentenced to a year’s imprisonment because he was overheard to say that Jews were mistreated. The Guardian wrote last week:

“The prohibitions on foreign newspapers are not only a sign of spiritual oppression in Germany; to the outer world they are proof of its rulers’ lack of confidence and of their incapacity. Too many people detest the actions of the present German Government; too many agencies are working and will continue to work to spread the truth about it, for the prohibition of this paper or that to do any injury except to the German Government itself. No one will fail to understand.”