with Latin countries. The Deutsch-Südamerikanisches Institut, and the Hamburgischer Ibero-Amerikanischer Verein were occupied chiefly with Latin and Latin-American countries, and had agents and usually press organs in every country where Spanish or Portuguese is spoken. The Far East was served through the Ostasiatische-Lloyd, which supplied a distributing centre in Shanghai.
Until the United States of America came into the war, there was a very active German campaign to influence American opinion in favour of Germany. A great part of it was conducted from the German embassy in Washington, and through the German consuls throughout the United States. Much work was done by special missions such as that of Dr. Dernburg, a former Colonial Secretary, and every German bank or trading corporation was a centre of organized effort. A very large number of serious books by well-known German authors were translated into English for American readers. These followed certain main lines. They drew contrasts between the peaceful progress of Germany since her unification, as compared with the violence of other Powers. They represented Germany as being engaged purely in self-defence. They offered veiled threats or bribes to the United States with reference to Japan. They insisted on the moral basis of German culture and civilization. Closely similar lines were followed by many leading Americans of German descent. Perhaps the most effective of these American-Germans was Hugo Münsterberg, professor of psychology at Harvard, who advocated the cause of his natal country with eloquence and apparent moderation. His main point was that the war was really a struggle between Russian barbarism and the western culture of Germany, France taking sides because of Alsace-Lorraine, England because of her commercial rivalry and desire for German colonies. If Germany were beaten, it would be a triumph of Asiatic Russia and of Japan over the culture of Europe and America. It was suggested that the task of America was to give Europe an honourable peace, which she could do only by the strictest neutrality, with a leaning to Germany. Some true Americans also engaged in propaganda in favour of Germany. Some of these, doubtless, were mere hirelings; the better were chiefly persons of standing in the literary, scientific and musical world, who had been much in Germany. Some of the exchange professors were leaders in this work, and very naturally advocated with zeal and knowledge the best side of the German character and the great part Germany had played in the arts and sciences. Still more vocal were the Irish-Americans, who devoted themselves with a malignant bitterness to propaganda against England.
As regards direct German propaganda against the enemy, comparatively little was done, as compared with other combatants, in the distribution of propagandist literature from Germany amongst the actual troops opposed to her. The Gazette des Ardennes was the most successful effort. It was a regular newspaper, written in French and often with an illustrated supplement. It was sent into France by balloons, and occasionally by aeroplane, and sometimes gained entrance through a neutral country. It was eagerly sought, as it was baited with genuine information as to French prisoners. Otherwise it consisted of well-arranged propagandist matter of the usual type. The Continental Times, written in English, was founded before the war as a genuine newspaper for Americans travelling in Germany and Austria. During the war, probably with the aid of a German subsidy, it developed into a propagandist organ, chiefly anti-English, and almost ludicrous in its exaggerated malevolence. It was freely circulated among English prisoners in German camps, where, fortunately, it was the occasion of a good deal of amusement. The Russkiya Iszvestia, written in Russian, was distributed to Russian prisoners of war, and to a smaller extent in Russia. It was a competent piece of work, addressed to the task of persuading the Russian peasant that his two chief enemies were England and his own Government, and that the victory of Germany would mean liberation.
Germany's greatest propagandist effort against her enemies was carried out by indirect means. Wherever she thought that there was opportunity, she endeavoured to excite the discontented subjects of her enemies. She sought to get in touch with Irishmen, Indians, Arabs, Egyptians, Boers, Algerians and Georgians, and with various black races. A special organization or committee in Berlin attended to each of these peoples, and to many others. Where possible, representatives were lured to Berlin, and, if thought useful, were provided with funds. Missions, sometimes accompanied by Germans, were sent wherever they could be sent with safety. On the negative side the effort had some success, and existing discontent was sedulously fomented. But on the positive side there was little gain, for the Germans were seldom able to persuade the actual or tentative rebels that their future position would be any better under the domination of Germany.
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PROPELLANTS (see 10.83). A propellant explosive should burn comparatively slowly, and thus allow the use of a suitable charge for the required muzzle velocity without causing a high chamber pressure, and enable the maximum pressure to be kept low while better sustained; it should burn regularly—which depends upon the area of surface exposed to burning—and the rate should be easily capable of regulation; it should be smokeless, without bright flash; it should not give excessive heat during combustion, but be easy of ignition and not leave any solid residue; it should have both chemical and ballistic stability while in storage. The method of manufacture and the proportionate mixture of cordite, the British smokeless propellant (see 7.138), have been very largely controlled by the postulated requirements, particularly as regards keeping qualities.
With cordite manufactured by the methods in vogue before the World War the nitrocellulose used was highly nitrated, necessitating the use of acetone as a solvent. This involved a serious disadvantage in that the supply of the solvent materially governed the output of cordite. The enormous amounts of propellant required and the demand for rapid supply during the war made this disadvantage seriously felt, and thoughts were turned in the direction of discovering some expedients in which a state of lower nitration would render possible the use of some other solvent, which could be more easily obtained, as well as the devising of new methods by which the time expended in manufacture might be materially reduced. At the same time it was postulated that disturbance of the ballistic and heat value of cordite M.D. was not to be incurred.
Experiments resulted in the introduction of a class of cordite known as R.D.B. (Research Department, mixture B.), with which ether-alcohol is used as the solvent. It consists in a percentage composition of nitroglycerine (42%), nitro-cotton (52%), mineral jelly (6%). A larger percentage of nitroglycerine was included in this mixture in order to compensate for the lower nature of nitrocellulose, and a higher proportion of mineral jelly to reduce the higher temperature produced by the extra proportion of nitroglycerine. The appearance of this class of cordite, as compared with cordite M.D., is not so clear, generally warped, with a rougher surface. With this mixture, not only was there the advantage in employing a solvent, of which supply was assured, but also the time required for drying in manufacture was considerably reduced.
Originally, the tubular form was introduced for cordite in order to maintain an equal area of burning surface, and so permit a more equally sustained pressure during combustion. In the form of strips, cordite gives very similar action as in the form of tubes; this form in manufacture and otherwise has other advantages which favoured its use for cartridges. But since, when made up into charges, strip cordite is apt to become packed tight, and so practically form a solid bundle, the result on explosion may not be as desired.
The provision of cellulose for conversion into nitrocellulose depended during the war very largely on the obtainable supplies. In Germany different expedients were tried, amongst them an unsuccessful attempt to use an artificial silk made by dissolving wood-cellulose in suitable solvents. But practically all the nitrocellulose made in that country, during the war, was made from a certain kind of paper, probably from some form of wood-cellulose (see Cellulose).
The American service propellant N.C.T. (nitrocellulose tubular) is a soluble nitro-cotton powder gelatinized by ether-alcohol, and containing a small percentage of diphenylamine added to act as a stabilizer. The powder is practically a pure nitrocellulose powder, and consists of nitrocellulose (97%), stabilizer (0.5%), volatile matter (2.5%).
The nitration of the cellulose is similar to the process in the case of cordite, but the drying of the powder is not carried so far, a con-
