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 CHAPTER IV OPERATIONS AGAINST GERMANY Early British neglect of propaganda—War Office establishes a department—Lord Northcliffe takes office—Mr. H. G. Wells's and Mr. Hamilton Fyfe's work—The final "intensive" campaign—Ways and means.

The successful launch of the "propaganda offensive" against Austria-Hungary raised high hopes for the success of the corresponding campaign against the Germans on the Western Front. These hopes were shared by the Prime Minister, who wrote to Lord Northcliffe on May 16, 1918:—"It seems to me that you have organised admirable work in your Austrian propaganda…. I trust that you will soon turn your attention towards German propaganda along the French and British Fronts. I feel sure that much can be done to disintegrate the moral of the German army along the same lines as we appear to have adopted with great success in the Austro-Hungarian army."

For the first eighteen months of the war all 50