December 4, 1915- 
L A N J. A N D W A T I" K • ' 
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTOR 
By Arthur Kitson. 
WHEN the complete history of the Great War 
comes to be written, the historian will be 
confronted with some rather pu/.zlmg pro- 
blems. For example, why have the Allies 
made so little effort to counteract the enemy's mfluence 
in Neutral Countries? Whv have they so completch 
failed to employ the psvchological factor agamst the 
?nemy. wliilst the enomv has employed it in neutral 
...unlVies with such skill and success against the Allies .-' 
W hy have the Allies been so negligent of the strongest 
weapon they possessed i 
When "the war started, the Allies were— as all the 
world now knows— entirely unpiepared to cope with the 
gigantic onslaught of the German armies, which long 
years of work and preparation had made irresistible 
But what they lacked in men and munitions they gamed 
in the moral strength and justice of their cause. Never 
dnce wars began has the righteousness of a cause been 
more conspicuous or more one-sided. The Allies held 
the trump cards. Their cause was that of the whole 
world— apart from that of the aggressors. Ranged on 
the side of Great Britain, France and Russia, stood 
Civilisation. Liberty, Chivalry and everything that 
mankind aspires to— freedom from bondage and oppression, 
the right of all nations to hve their own individual hves, 
to speak and read in their own native tongue, to worship 
according to their own particular faith. All the natural 
aspirations of the vast majority of the world's inhabitants 
appeared to be centred in the victory of the Allies. 
Neutral Indifference. 
Had anyone predicted sixteen months ago the course 
the war has since taken, and the present attitude of the 
various nations, the most incredible part of the predictions 
would have been the apparent indifference — and in 
certain cases even the open hostihty— of neutral countries 
to the Allied cause. One would have felt safe in asserting 
that any Power that dared insult humanity by disregard- 
ng every code of honour, by rejecting every rule hitherto 
recognised by civilised nations for mitigatirg the horrors 
af warfare — by brazenly tearing up treaties, invading 
aeutral countries and reverting to the methods of ancient 
savagery — as Germany and Austria have done, would have 
aroused the vengeance of the entire globe, and launched all 
the foicc5 of civilisation against them. And yet, see what 
has happened. A considerable proportion of Neutrals 
believe to-day that Germany's cause is a righteous one. 
Germany's rulers have succeeded in convincing their own 
people at home and abroad, as well as many Neutrals, 
that the Allies were the aggressors. 
Apart from Italy, who entered the war because of 
her ancient hostility to Austria, it must be admitted that 
Germany has managed to secure greater help from neutrals 
than have the Allies. Germany has secured the active 
co-operation of Turkey and, Bulgaria, and has prevented 
Greece and Roumania— the avowed enemies of these two 
races from declaring war themselves on the side of the 
Allies, and has forced King Constantine to follow her 
example in the matter of disregarding treaties. Sweden 
is — in sentiment at least — decidedly pro-German. Switzer- 
land, in spite of her danger from Germany's success, is 
divided, with a considerable balance in favour of our 
enemies. Holland seems similarly divided, and as loath 
to oppose Germany as though she belonged to the Teutonic 
Empire. Spain leans towards the German cause. Pope 
Benedict XV. is known to have similar leanings. Lastly, 
the United States — whom everyone would have counted 
as being strongly and even aggressively on the side of 
Freedom — prides herself upon her rigid neutrality, and 
looks on this great straggle with comparative indifference. 
1 speak now of the Government and the general opinion 
of the American people as expressed by their leading 
journals. It can hardly be doubted that if Germany 
iiad secured control of the seas and defeated our Navy, the 
munitions that have been and are still being shipped to 
the .'\llics from across the Atlantic, would have been 
going direct to Germanj'. Whatever help the Allies have 
received and are receiving from neutral countries, is due 
to the strength of our Navy and to commercial and 
flnl-ial poHdcs, and not to any moral considerations. 
Allies' Main Strength. 
What everyone would have regarded as the main 
strength of the Allied cause-its justice-seems to have 
bee'" o little material advantage. At first sight it vv^iikl 
•inopir ns though moral considerations were of little 
if'^;; value in u'rfaro, and would lead one to despair of 
the ultimate triumph of Right over Wrong. Let us sec 
however, how this kppannt inversion ol the moral order 
of thing; has been brought about. How is ,t, to use our 
metaphor once more, that with so poor a hand, (■cnianv 
has been able to score so many points, and with a handful 
c,f trumps why have the Allies failed to win ,^ The answer 
is that from the very beginning of hostihties, Germany 
seized the psychological factor and has ceaselessly em- 
ployed it with daring skill and even brazen effrontery, 
whilst on the other hand the Allies have— either through 
ignorance, incUfference, or foolishness— negectcd or rel^iiscd 
to use the strongest weapon they could possibly have 
found and which good fortune originally placed m their 
hands'. Indeed, they have allowed the enemy to spike 
their most powerful guns ! ^ ' , , - ., • 
When the German rulers first planned their 
treacherous attack upon their neighbours, they drew up. a 
lying report, setting forth the causes and origins of the 
war' asserting that 'Germany was sun'oundcd by a world 
of enemies hungering and thirsting to destroy her, which 
was to be published at home and abroad as soon as war 
was declared. Preparations for a universal propaganda 
were made months and even years prior to the war. In 
every neutral country, emissaries of the German Govern- 
ment bought up newspapers and paved the way for 
controlling public opinion. It is stated that upwards of 
/io,ooo,ooo has been spent by the German Go\ernment 
m the United States alone on propaganda work. News- 
paper and magazine articles, pamphlets and lectures 
illustrated by the cinema, have been produced and de- 
livered by the thousand in all lands and in all tohgues ! 
Avalanche of Falsehood. 
Against this avalanche of falsehood the Allies have 
apparently done nothing, beyond offering a direct denial. 
It is safe to say that not a single newspaper has been 
purchased or started in a neutral country by any of the 
Allied Powers for the purpose of counteracting this deadly 
campaign of German slander. Our own Cioveniment 
appears to have been content with the publication of a 
selection of F"oreign Office literature, and one or two 
speeches of Sir Edward Grey, which was sold to the public 
at the price of one shilling a copy. These, together with 
a few cheap pamphlets containing a digest of the Blue 
Book, and a recital of the horrors perpetrated by the 
Huns in France and Belgium, appear to be our total 
contribution to the world's demand for enlightenment 
regarding the greatest conspiracy in the world's history. 
The French, have done a little better. The Russians, less 
than ourselves. Moreover, the long delay in the publica- 
tion of these pamphlets gave our enemies the lield to them- 
selves during the first months of the war. It is true that 
private effort has in a measure helped to make up this 
deficiency. But in spite of all this, it can be truthfully 
asserted that the neglect of the Psychological Factor by 
the Allied Powers on the one hand, and the enormous use 
which the enemy has so skilfully and unscrupulously 
made of it on the other, has greatly prolonged the war 
and increased the strength and resistance of the enemy. 
The psychology of the German people is probably the 
simplest to understand of any people in the world. It is 
all writ large in the methods they employ against those 
they wish to conquer. When the Germans desire to 
achieve certain psychological results, they first ask them- 
selves what would produce those results among thcni- 
selves. For example, they are anxious to make their 
enemy civilians tire of the war and beg their Governments 
to sue for peace. To the question " What means must 
we employ to accomplish this result? " their answer is 
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