BOYCOTTING GERMANY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 172, 24 July 1933, Page 6

BOYCOTTING GERMANY.

Labour in Britain has decided to fight whfjt it calls "the insensate tyranny" of Hitierism by instituting a boycott of German goods. This is not surprising considering the way in which the Nazis have attacked all organised Labour and suppressed the trade unions. In the manifesto issued by the National Joint Council of the Trades Union Congress, the Labour Party and the Parliamentary Labour Party, it is stated that the people of Germany are not held guilty, and that they probably are not aware of the extent to which their present Government has alienated international sympathy. There is probably some truth in this. The German people fire not allowed to read anything except what their Government allows them to read. It is, however, strange that no similar protest against tyranny has been voiced by the Labour organisations in the case of a neighbouring country. In Russia, during the two years which followed the accession of the Bolshevists to power, it is said that no fewer than 8389 persons were shot by order of the Clieka in Central Russia. In one day 500 persons were arrested and summarily executed in Petrograd alone. Repression is still the order of the day in Russia, but it has evoked no desire among British Labour organisations to boycott Russian goods. It is doubtful, however, if the proposed boycott of German goods will do much to mend matters. It will probably be interpreted by Hitler as another attempt to maltreat Germany and as affording; a new excuse to rouse further the nationalist spirit. The strongest outside check on \ Hitierism will be the moral censure of the I world, but whero propaganda is so highly organised, and the people are so docile, it will take a long time for jiis condemnation to i ■make- itself felL