"THE POISONED ARROWS FROM
THE AIR."
44
The Ypres Times.
The Generals Ludetidorff and Hindenburg, at the end of the War, told Germany
that the morale of her armies had been mainly destroyed by poisoned arrows from the
air," by which phrase they described the English and Allied propaganda literature which
was showered over their lines and in the towns behind their front, originally by our
airmen and latterly by hydrogen balloons, sent up whenever and wherever the air currents
were favourable, from which they were dropped by an ingenious form of release." The
latter is credited with the statement that one of his first duties and pleasures, on entering
London at the head of the victorious German Army, would be to crucify Dr. Chalmers
Mitchell, F.RS., and his assistant and successor in the editorship of the Courier de I'air,
one on each side of the entrance to Adastral House. As such assistant and successor,
this statement was full of interest for the present writer.
The Courier de I'air, of which I believe only three complete files exist to-day,
was a gay and sprightly little journal. Its object was to give the inhabitants of the
occupied territories of France and Belgium accurate news of the progress of the War
from the point of view of the Alliesand it may be said at once that the editing of such
news was, at times, a process requiring a considerable amount of tact and discretion
and, shall we say, enthusiasm The average number which we distributed weekly was
5,000, or when special circumstances demanded, double that numberor more.
The front page contained the latest news of the progress (or strategic retreats
according to plan of the Allies, in which the accounts of German defeats and losses
were never exaggerated, but, a foriiori never minimised. The back page was filled with
extracts, translated into French, from papers of the Allied countries, and especially
from German papers, suppressed by the Government when they reflected adversely upon
the conduct of the War, or upon the frightful conditions existing in Germany from April,
1917, when the Courier started,-to November, 1918, when it terminated with No. 78 on
the 7th instant. Of No. 79, which was never sent out, only three proofs of the back
page exist. The construction of this back page necessitated the continuous reading
of, in addition to the English papers, two Belgian, one Dutch, three French, two Italian and
one Spanish, besides such German papers as the Vorwarts, the Handelszeitung of Bremen,
the Munich Post, the Berliner Tageblatt, the Kolnische Zeitung, and many others. It
was a trying occupation for one, who, like the present writer, has a constitutional dislike
of newspapers of any kind whatever. One could fill a volume with the amazing and
unconsciously revelatory paragraphs which we collected from this mass of war-literature.
The comic papers often threw the most lurid lights upon the agony of the German
population. I have, I think, awarded the palm to a dialogue between two women in a
tramcarin the Vienna Witzblatt One woman says I had a wonderful dream last
nightI dreamt that the War was over." The other What did you have to eat
I don't know." What a stupid dream!
It will be readily understood that the German High Command loathed us. I have
seen a proclamation of Major Von Blucher, the German commandant at Ghent, threatening
the inhabitants with a fine of £150 or a year's imprisonment, or both, if they failed to
hand over immediately, and unread, any copy of our sprightly paper that fell from the
air. For the first copy brought in the Kommandatur paid ten francsfor every
subsequent one 25 centimes (in German paper).
