POLICY COMMITTEE
5th July 1940

Present:

D.G.

D D.G.

D.S.

P.S.

Lord Perth

Sir Kenneth Clark

Mr. Kirkpatrick

Mr. Macadam

Mr. Peake

Mr. Wellington

Mr. Ryon

Mr. Wiltshire (Secretary)

1. PRIME MINISTER'S INSTRUCTIONS AGAINST RUMOURS

The Director General read a letter from General Ismay enclosing a report from an officer who had taken part in the evacuation of Dunkirk illustrating the dangerous effects of rumour during operations. General Ismay had been instructed by the Prime Minister to ask that a wide campaign should be immediately put in hand against the dangers of rumour. Sir Kenneth Clark observed that the Planning Committee campaign was at present directed towards dangerous gossip and defeatist talk and it appeared now from the type of danger which had been described in the officer's report that we should add confusing rumours to these themes. He would therefore take steps to get this theme included in the general scheme which he hoped to have ready for circulation and discussion at next Monday's meeting. Mr. Nicolson said that he thought our methods at present were not nearly intensive enough. We had not paid enough attention to the psychological effect of repetition. It was true that repetition was boring, but it was also effective. Various suggestions were made. A number of slogans might be thought out and newspapers might be invited to run competitions for slogans. These might be introduced into the B.B.C. programmes, for example, instead of the present waiting signal. It was suggested that the Minister should give a talk during the campaign of an amusing kind. We should suggest to the Minister that when the subject was discussed in the Cabinet it should not be allowed to appear that nothing had been done before the Prime Minister's instructions. This was not in fact the case. It was understood that Sir Kenneth Clark would assume responsibility for carrying out the Prime Minister's instructions.

During the course of the discussion a report was made of certain proceedings before the Swinton Committee the afternoon before. The Deputy Secretary reported that he and Mr. Macadam had attended the Swinton Committee. Owing to some misunderstanding they found the Committee were preparing to discuss what they took to be proposals from the Ministry of Information, and at an early stage in the proceedings the Committee began to arrive at a decision, to which the Ministry of Information representatives were the only dissentients, that all leaflet printing should be prohibited. They appeared to be largely influenced by knowledge in their possession as subversive leaflets now being printed for distribution, and they were viewing the matter solely from the point of view of home security. In the upshot the Committee had agreed on the details of an order carrying out this intention, and the Ministry of Information representatives had signified that they must reserve their opinion until they had had an opportunity of consulting the Minister. The position therefore was that the Swinton Committee would present their report to the Cabinet very shortly, and if we wished to dissent from it would be necessary to advise the Minister and prepare the arguments by which he could meet the recommendations of the Committee in the Cabinet.

It was noted that this decision cuts across the activities of the Ministry in various ways. We have agreed with the local authorities that they 280 should undertake fly-posting for us in certain contingencies. Moreover we had a large number of blank posters printed with Union Jacks suitable for overprinting (it was thought that this devise was difficult to forge and might well act as a kind of watermark of authenticity). It seemed also that the dilemma had not been faced: either we had full information as to present leaflet activities and the most effective method to counter this would be to confiscate the presses and destroy the leaflets; or we had no such information, in which case the fears might be of less weight. As to pamphlets brought in from outside this country, general distribution under conditions which would mislead people to a very great degree seemed to be extremely difficult for the Germans. At this point, the connection between the measures designed to stop the spread of rumour by prohibiting all leaflets, and the campaign which was to be carried out in accordance with the Prime Minister's instructions became clear.

It was eventually agreed that the Deputy Secretary, Sir Kenneth Clark and Mr. Macadam should see Lord Swinton at once and having collected the arguments against the action contemplated by his Committee should put them to him and report the result.

2. OIL

The Director General referred to a discussion which had lately taken place on the propaganda value of the oil situation and wondered whether we should now make more of it. In the discussion which followed it appeared that there was little prospect of making a useful campaign out of the subject.

3. PORTUGAL

In answer to the Director General's enquiry whether we should not intensify our propaganda in Portugal, Mr. Kirkpatrick said that the most important body there to assist us was the Press and the best way of influencing them was to subsidise them by advertisements. Secondly it was very important to get a regular air service to Portugal. Mr. O'Brien of the British Council had recently returned from Portugal and had reported favourably on the Press Attaché’s activities there, but it was mentioned that the Ambassador was inclined to be afraid of spending much money in spite of our representations in the contrary direction. The Director General suggested that the Ambassador might be invited to spend a sum such as £20,000 in the next two months in order to give him a feeling of considerable freedom. He also thought it might be a good thing to send out a highly experienced man to survey the ground in view of the extreme importance of Portugal. Mr. Kirkpatrick said that such a man was difficult to find. It was noted that Sir Noel Charles would shortly see Mr. Kirkpatrick and the discussion was deferred for the time being.

4. USE OF STORY OF PILOTS

Lord Perth referred to the point made in the Prime Minister's speech that 400 captured German pilots had been permitted by the Bordeaux Government to return to Germany. He thought that great use should be made of this story and in particular it should be noted that M. Reynaud had given an undertaking not to allow these men to be returned.