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Censorship, Propaganda and Public Opinion: The case of the Katyn Graves, 1943*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 February 2009
Extract
THE SUBJECT of this paper is not the sombre story of the mass graves at Katyn, filled with the corpses of murdered Polish officers; nor will it deal directly with the question of who killed those officers. I approach these events in the course of research on the relationship between public opinion and foreign policy in Britain during the Second World War, and on the closely related matters of censorship and propaganda as practised by the British government in that period. The diplomatic crisis produced by the affair of the Katyn graves was one in which publicity was freely used as an instrument of policy—indeed sometimes policy and publicity were indistinguishable. Those who controlled British censorship and propaganda, and attempted to guide public opinion, were faced with acute and wideranging problems. It is the object of this paper to analyse those problems, to see how the government tried to cope with them, and to trace the reactions of the press and public opinion, as a case study in the extent and limitations of government influence in such matters.
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- Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1989
References
1 See Zawodny, J. K., Death in the Forest: the story of the Katyn forest massacre (London, 1971)Google Scholar, and compare the discussion of the evidence in two despatches by the British Ambassador to the Polish government, O'Malley to Eden, 24 May 1943 and 11 Feb. 1944, both in Public Record Office, PREM 3/353. The evidence indicates overwhelmingly that the officers were killed by the Soviets.
2 Cf. Bell, P. M. H., ‘War, foreign policy and public opinion: Britain and the Darlan affair, November–December 1942’, Journal of Strategic Studies, v, 1982, No. 3, 393–415CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
3 The Political Warfare Executive (PWE) prepared (29 April 1943) an analysis of Axis reports, with a note on discrepancies between them: PRO, FO 371/34565, C4889/258/55. Collections of newspaper reports from several countries may be found in the Chatham House press cuttings collection, British Library Newspaper Library, and at the Polish Institute in London.
4 The denial was published in English in Soviet War News, 17 April 1943, and published or summarised in the British press on the same date. It may also be found in General Sikorski Historical Institute, Documents on Polish-Soviet Relations, 1939–1945 (DPSR), i (London, 1961), No. 306Google Scholar.
5 Texts of the two statements, in English, DPSR, I, Nos. 307, 308. They appeared in the British press, 17 and 19 April.
6 Soviet note, in English, DPSR, I, No. 313; published in the British press, 27 April.
7 For the German propaganda effort, see Balfour, Michael, Propaganda in War, 1939–1945 (London, 1979), 332–4Google Scholar; for references to France, see e.g. Le petit Parisien, 17–18 April 1943.
8 FO 371/34593, C3375/335/55, Hopkinson to Strang, 17 March 1943, and attached papers; C3583/335/55, Minister of State, Cairo, to FO, 31 March 1943; C3623/335/55, same to same, 1 April; C3742/335/55, FO to Washington, 20 April. Raczynski, Count Edward, In Allied London (London, 1962), 133Google Scholar.
9 FO 371/34383, C 3345/50/62, BBC Survey of European Audiences: S-E Europe, 10 March 1943. The Germans used loudspeakers in the streets of Warsaw to broadcast the news of Katyn.
10 Churchill to Stalin, 24 April 1943, and Stalin to Churchill, 25 April, Kimball, Warren F., ed., Churchill and Roosevelt: the complete correspondence (Princeton, 1984), ii 193–6Google Scholar; Kerr to Eden, 26 April, FO 371/34569, C4646/258/55.
11 On the background of Soviet-Polish relations, see Polonsky, Antony, The Great Powers and the Polish Question, 1941–45 (London, 1976), especially 13–23Google Scholar.
12 Polonsky, 24, 121–2; CAB 66/34, WP(43)69, note by Eden for War Cabinet, 17 Feb. 1943.
13 Guidance memo., FO 371/34566, C2905/258/55; MOI Executive Board minutes, 2 March 1943, INF 1/73.
14 The Catholic journals were Catholic Times, 4 March, Catholic Herald, 5 March, and The Tablet 6 March. Chief Censor's remarks in FO 371/34565, C2509/258/55, minute by Nash, 10 March 1943.
15 Defence Regulations are set out in CAB 66/12, WP(40)402, 8 Oct. 1940, and CAB 66/19, WP(41)268, 12 Nov. 1941. Three sets of D Notices for the wartime period are in BBC Written Archives, R61 (Censorship), along with the rules on broadcasting censorship.
16 Ryan to Monckton, 4 June 1941, BBC Written Archives, 830/37; cf. Briggs, Asa, History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom, iii, The War of Words (London, 1970), 32Google Scholar.
17 Home Intelligence, British Public Feeling about America, q.25; Gallup archives, BIPO Survey 98.
18 INF 1/292, Home Intelligence Reports 120–123; BIPO Survey 94; British Public Feeling about America, q.58. The Gallup poll questions were:
Dec. 1942. If after this war you HAD to choose between an alliance with Russia or with America which would you choose? Russia 32; America 46; Don't Know 22.
March 1943. Which country do you think it will be easier for us to get on with after the war: USA or Russia? USA 46; Russia 22; Same 17; Don't Know 15.
19 For Churchill, see FO 371/34568, C4230/258/55; Raczynski, , In Allied London, 141Google Scholar; cf. Barker, Elisabeth, Churchill and Eden at War (London, 1978), 249Google Scholar. For Cadogan, see Dilks, David, ed. The Diaries of Sir Alexander Cadogan, 1938–1945 (London, 1971), 523Google Scholar. For Roberts, see FO 371/34569, C4464/258/55. For Kerr, see Clark Kerr to FO, 21 April 1943, FO 371/34569, C4464/258/55.
20 O'Malley to Eden, 24 May 1943, and accompanying minutes, FO 371/34577, C6160/258/55. Cf. Fitzgibbon, Louis, Katyn Massacre (London, 1977), 193–213Google Scholar, where the despatch and minutes are printed.
21 Churchill to Stalin, 24 April 1943, Kimball, ii. 193–4; Sikorski's record of conversation with Eden, 24 April, DPSR, II, 696–702; FO 371/34573, C4919/258/55, minute by Cadogan, 30 April.
22 FO 371/34569, C4478/258/55, minutes by Lancaster and Roberts, 13, 14 and 15 April 1943; FO 371/34570, 04664/258/55, minutes by Ridsdale and Roberts, 21 April.
23 Minbranch Bagdad to Minister of State, Cairo, 29 April and 2 May 1943, FO 371/34571, C4828/258/55 and 34572, C4897/258/55; Minister of State, Cairo, to FO, 29 April, FO 371/34570, C4743/258/55. M.Josef Czapski, who edited the newspaper for Anders' army, said in an interview in May 1987 that the British excluded comments on Katyn from that paper, though the main effect of this was merely to anger the troops.
24 Bullard to FO, 20 and 22 April 1943, FO 371/34569, C4383 and 4458/258/55.
25 Casey to FO, 21 April 1943, and attached papers, FO 371/34569, C4458/258/55.
26 PWE Central Directives, 3 and 24 Feb. 1943, FO 371/34381, C907/50/62 and C1884/50/62; PWE Weekly Directive for BBC Polish Services, 26 Feb., FO 371/34555, C195/129/55. Special Issues Committee, 15 March, FO 371/34383, C3686/50/62.
27 PWE Central Directive, 21 April 1943, and Directive for Polish Services, 22 April, FO 371/34555, C3119/129/55; European News Directive, 17 April, BBC Written Archives, OS 137B.
28 PWE Directive, FO 371/34384, C4287/50/62; European News Directive, BBC Written Archives, OS 137E.
29 FO to Minister of State, Cairo, 26 April 1943, FO 371/34570, C4665/258/55; minute by Allen, 8 June 1943, FO 371/34578, C6424/258/55.
30 CAB 65/34, WM(43)59th Conclusions.
31 Churchill to Stalin, 28 April 1943, Kimball, II, 199–200.
32 Fo 371/34604, C5032/1389/55, draft broadcast by Sikorski for Polish National Day.
33 FO 371/34556, C5339/129/55. One enterprising Pole in Edinburgh published two occasional newsletters, in one of which he proposed to run a competition for personal reminiscences on life under Soviet occupation.
34 FO 371/34556, C5352/129/55, minute by Allen, 8 May 1943.
35 CAB 66/37, WP(43)249, 17 June 1943; CAB 65/34, WM(43) 87th Conclusions, 21 June.
36 Soviet War News, 20 and 28 April 1943; Daily Worker between 20 April and 4 May, when there was a long article on ‘The Polish Plot’, by Ivor Montagu.
37 FO 371/34571, C4778/258/55, Eden to Kerr, 29 April 1943; FO 371/34574, C5136/258/55, minute by Churchill, 30 April; Cadogan Diaries, 525.
38 PREM 3/354/9, Churchill to Eden, 16 May 1943; CAB 65/34, WM(43) 10 and 17 May 1943. Bracken did make a statement in the Commons (20 May) that the existing ban on the export of the Daily Worker remained in force.
39 Daily Telegraph diplomatic correspondent, 7 May 1943.
40 The Times and other papers, 8 May 1943.
41 Scotsman, 28, 29 April, 3 May 1943; Glasgow Herald, 27 April, 7 May.
42 A set of these news-letters (which began in April 1943) is in the Polish Institute Archives, A 9 III 2d/10. There is no sign that a similar effort was made south of the border.
43 Manchester Guardian, diplomatic correspondent, 1 May 1943; Spectator, 30 April, 397. 14 May, 441.
44 Catholic Times, 30 April 1943, and cf. Universe and Catholic Herald, same date; The Tablet, 24 April and 1 May 1943.
45 ‘Poland, Russia and Great Britain’, The Nineteenth Century and After, June 1943, 241–259.
46 News Chronicle, 27, 30 April, 7 May 1943.
47 Tribune, leading article, 7 May 1943, article ‘Bisons and Hooligans’, 21 May; New Statesman, leading article, 1 May.
48 News Chronicle and New Statesman, 1 May 1943. The leading articles in The Times by E. H. Carr, and the despatches from Moscow by Ralph Parker, who was deeply sympathetic to the Soviet point of view, consistently advocated the acceptance of a Soviet sphere in eastern Europe as the only realistic outcome of the war.
49 FO 371/34572, C4910/258/55; FO 371/34576, 05834/258/55; Polish Institute Archives, A 12.49/WB/Sow/4A.
50 FO 371/34578, C6424/258/55, Wardlaw-Milne to Cadogan, 2 June 1943.
51 INF 3/292, Home Intelligence Reports 133–139, 13 April–1 June 1943; the detailed analysis is in 135.
52 FO 371/34572, C4909/258/55, Kerr to Eden, 29 April 1943; FO 371/34578, C6424/258/55, minute by Roberts, 9 June.