On May 30, 1940, Sidney House, a fifty-four-year-old clerk at the Mansfield labor exchange reported to the police that three days earlier he had heard the German radio propagandist Lord Haw-Haw (William Joyce) threaten the occupation of local schools by German troops. The authorities set about verifying House’s account. The BBCMonitoring Service, which screened all foreign radio programs throughout the SecondWorldWar, checked its transcriptions of German broadcasts. No such threat was issued by the infamous radio announcer. The police interviewedHouse again, this timewarning him of the potential consequences of a false statement under the General Regulations of the 1939 Defence Act. House confessed that he had not personally heard the broadcast; instead he had “overheard some people talking about it as they passed my garden.”When pressed, House admitted that he had invoked Haw-Haw’s name in order to give his story force and legitimacy: “it would have had more effect than if I heard it from someone else.” Asserting his patriotic credentials as a “Britisher,” House pleaded that he did not “intend to harm anyone.” His pleas fell on deaf ears. House was charged with “unlawfully making a statement which he knew to be false” and stood trial at Mansfield Magistrates Court in June 1940. The case was the first relating to Haw-Haw broadcasts to be prosecuted under the provision about false statements within the Defence Regulations. The prosecuting counsel focused on the proliferation of rumors generated by House’s statement and the potential damage to publicmorale. Cecil de Sausmarez, a representative of Britain’s Ministry of Information (MoI), presented evidence from the BBC Monitoring Service and reported on the “enormous number of such rumours” that had been swamping the ministry. R. P. Marchant, for the prosecution, declared that “unfounded rumours are much too prevalent throughout the country at the moment.” House was found guilty and issued with a £10 fine and five guineas costs to be settled within one month. The presiding magistrate, Mr. G. Annable, expressed the “hope that this will be a warning to every-

中文翻译：

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对抗霍霍勋爵：谣言与英国战时反谎言局

1940 年 5 月 30 日，曼斯菲尔德劳工交易所 54 岁的职员西德尼·豪斯 (Sidney House) 向警方报告说，三天前，他听到德国广播宣传员霍霍勋爵 (威廉·乔伊斯饰) 威胁要占领德国军队的当地学校。当局着手核实豪斯的账户。BBCMonitoring Service 在整个第二次世界大战期间筛选所有外国广播节目，检查其德国广播的转录。臭名昭著的电台播音员没有发出这样的威胁。警方再次询问豪斯，这一次警告他根据 1939 年国防法总则作出虚假陈述的潜在后果。豪斯承认他没有亲自听到广播；相反，他“在经过我的花园时无意中听到了一些人在谈论它。”当被按下时，豪斯承认他引用了虎啸的名字是为了赋予他的故事力量和合法性：“这会比我从其他人那里听到它产生更大的影响。” 豪斯坚称自己是“英国人”的爱国证书，辩称他“无意伤害任何人”。他的请求被置若罔闻。豪斯被指控“非法发表他明知是虚假的陈述”，并于 1940 年 6 月在曼斯菲尔德地方法院受审。此案是第一个根据辩方内部虚假陈述条款被起诉的与虎啸广播有关的案件规定。起诉律师的重点是众议院的声明所产生的谣言泛滥以及对公众士气的潜在损害。英国信息部（MoI）代表塞西尔·德·索斯马雷斯（Cecil de Sausmarez），提供了来自 BBC 监控服务的证据，并报告了“大量此类谣言”已经席卷该部。检方的 RP Marchant 宣称，“目前在全国范围内，毫无根据的谣言太普遍了。” 豪斯被判有罪，并处以 10 英镑的罚款和 5 基尼的费用，将在一个月内解决。首席法官 G. Annable 先生表示“希望这将成为对每个人的警告——