“I dare say quite a lot of them may have been frighted by the possibilities outlined in those two and other newspaper editorials.”
Your opinion again.
To believe the contrary is that this dire concern dropped into the public consciousness with nary a ripple stirred.
Of course a war did follow later, so I doubt the lack of a ripple actually occurred.
More like the public thought : "Bankruptcy! Loss of jobs! Economic Depression! Quick! Let's think of a rationalization we can use to prevent this, but that doesn't make it look like we are only concerned about our financial well being! "