The main part of the time which the Committee on Material gave to the discussion of its subject was devoted to the question of the most effective forms of propaganda and to the special methods desirable for putting these forms into practice. There was general agreement that the best way to depress the moral of the German troops and the German population was to show them that it was against their interest to continue the war; that the longer they went on the worse they would fare both during the war and after; and that their only hope of regaining their place in the community of nations lay in throwing over the bad advisers who had led them into the war, and whose repeated promises of success had been one after the other falsified. Thereto the Germans had always had a hope before them. They were taught to hope for great advantage from the downfall of Russia, from the unrestricted U-boat warfare, from the last offensive on the Western Front. For the first time their leaders did not know what hope to dangle before them. Therefore, the moment was one peculiarly favourable for propaganda if undertaken upon the right lines.
It appeared to the Committee that the
