A great many of those who saw did not survive to tell the tale, but
some did. There are more men and women about today who are not to be
put off with humbugs than ever there were before. Such folk make up an
element in Society which the censors know to be something more than
dangerous. They are men who cannot easily be bribed for they have seen
through the worth of the bribe, who cannot be intimidated because they
no longer fear, and who cannot be cheated because they have seen true
values. Hence your new censorship and its methods. Rebels must be
drowned in a babble of words. They must be suppressed by the action of
the unthinking masses rolled up upon them. They must be ground to
powder lest they should turn the world upside down.

That, then, is the basis of censorship. Fear. You can do most things
in England today except tell the truth, or, at any rate, except tell
the truth in such a way that people will believe you. At the time of
the French Revolution there was a broadsheet in circulation which
showed on one side Louis XVI in his coronation robes. He was a fine
figure of a man. His flowing wig descended majestically to his broad
shoulders and his shapely leg, thrust forth, dominated a world. But on
the reverse, a pimply shrunken figure emerged from the bath. Shortly
after publication they had a revolution in France.

Now the War circulated such another broadsheet in the world. Here is
the official side of it. Marriage is made in heaven. Politicians are
earnest, devoted men. One's own country always fights for Right
without Fear and without Reproach. Millionaires are nearly always
philanthropists. Capitalism is a just, kindly, and reasonable basis
for Society. The General Confession has become the national prayer of
Englishmen. Modern Civilisation is thoroughly healthy and every day it
gets better and better. It is so. It must be so. _What's that?_