"Some Simple Truths"

The Chamber of Deputies passed the Foreign Office budget for 1933 last week. U. S. correspondents noted the fact, then prospected for news nuggets through page after page of official specifications. A 175-page supplement caused their hair to curl. Leonine Foreign Minister Joseph Paul-Boncour had demanded and got an additional appropriation of 33,000,000 francs ($1,320,000) for French propaganda abroad. In the introduction to his demand he explained that nine European Governments annually spend the following sums (in francs) in foreign propaganda: Germany: 256,000,000 (before Hitler) Italy: 119,000,000 France: 71,000,000 Britain: 69,000,000 Poland: 26,000,000 Hungary: 23,000,000 Czechoslovakia: 18,000,000 Jugoslavia: 13,000.000 Rumania: 7,000,000 Most of the new propaganda fund, the document explained, was to be spent in combating anti-French sentiment in the U. S. It added:

"Among the preliminary steps to be taken is the speeding up of the study of the Hearst newspapers to permit prompt reply to anti-French attacks. . . .

"The American people go to no trouble to inform themselves. We must place under their eyes some simple truths. ... An American may honestly ruin his best friend just to prove he is the stronger, then offer him his hand and help him to arise. Friendship has nothing to do with business. . . . The American people are ignorant of their own history. They must not be expected to know French history. . . .

"The American feminine element has an important viewpoint; we must address ourselves particularly to it. ... It is vital that young, good-looking and active speakers be sent to the United States instead of unhealthy, decrepit, tired, feverish, wornout, coughing and trembling ancients bound into frock coats. These have to be put to bed upon their arrival with hot water bottles at their feet, have to be awakened just in time for a conference, and when rushed to a station thousands of precautions have to be taken. That is why France is pictured as a tired, worn-out country."

In spending the 33,000,000 francs, M. Paul-Boncour, an authority on propaganda as France's most expensive trial lawyer, listed other points beside the hiring of muscular young lecturers able to cope with the U. S. cocktail party:

1) Furthering of French motion pictures.

2) Sunday night broadcasts via the British station at Rugby.

3) Subsidizing pro-French articles in U. S. magazines by prominent authors.

At the end came a cracker: "These inquiries have allowed us to establish a general basic plan to be undertaken in the near future ... by collaboration with the Associated Press and the Havas news agency. . . . The Quai d'Orsay assures the technical and financial control of this news service."

Red with embarrassment and anger, Associated Press officials hotly denied that they had been bought or intended to further official French propaganda in the U. S. Other news services privately teased but not for a second did they doubt A. P.'s integrity. They realized that persuasive

M. Paul-Boncour was simply over interpreting an old working agreement between A. P. and the Government-controlled Havas agency.

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