DR. STRASSER

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 69, Issue 79, 13 January 1949, Page 5

DR. STRASSER

RENEWAL OF ACTIVITIES AN AIM

LONDON, January 11

“The attempted reappearance on the German political stage of Dr. Otto Strasser (former leader of the Black Front) is symptomatic of the new nationalist spirit that is finding everlouder expression—not least under Russian inspiration in Communist propaganda,” says the correspondent of “The Times” in Berlin.

According to a statement made in Hanover by his representative in Germany, Dr. Strasser is “burning” to return to take over the leadership of his movement.

Dr. Strasser has kept in touch with his followers by means' of chain letters, in which he expounds his political ideas, passes judgment on present parties and politicians, and explains liow Germany may best profit from the clash between Russia and the Western democracies. In one of his latest circulars Dr. Strasser gives a melodramatic account of a possible war between East and West, in the course of which he remarks: “With the Red Army standing at the Channel, England will have to play the part of Vichy.” According to Dr. Strasser, the terms on which the Germans would be “willing to fight and work” are, “freedom and the unity of Germany from Aachen to Beuthen, from Memel to the Saar; cessation of all dismantling aiid reparation deliveries; and complete equality of rights for a free and unoccupied Germany in a European Federation and the United Nations.” In his circulars, Dr. Strasser speaks of forming a “National Opposition” against the “Quisling parties' now cooperating with the Allied Powers of occupation.” He makes no distinction between the policies of Russia and the Western democracies.

His economic programme rejects both capitalism and Communism In favour of what he calls “Solidarism, ’ under which capitalistic enterprise would be converted into co-operatives. In agriculture a kind of fiefdom would be revived. There seems no reason to suppose that Dr. Strasser had changed his fundamental ideas since he fell out with Hitler and was deprived by Nazi law of his rights a German citizen.

Dr. Strasser has been living on a farm in Nova Scotia since 1943. He broke with Hitler in 1930 and became a political exile after his brother Gregor, then “No. 2 Nazi,” was killed in the big party purge of 1934.