EUROPE TO-DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 232, 2 October 1933, Page 5

EUROPE TO-DAY.

A SILVER LINING.

TRAVELLER'S IMPRESSIONS.

NAZI GERMANY. "The iKipression I gained when in Germany was that'the youth of the country dearly loves a uniform, and that Hitler's is as good as any other," said Mr. D. B. Ferguson, an Australian business man who is a through passenger by the Monowai, returning from a nine months' tour of Great Britain, Europe and America. Mr. Ferguson was in Berlin on May 28, when a demonstration was held in commemoration of Leo Schlegeter's execution by the* French in the Ruhr in 1923, for sabotage. "The Germans regard this as a murder," ha said, "and in conjunction with a great demonstration in Dusseldorf attended by thousands ofi Steel Helmets and Brown Shirts, parades'are held in every town in Germany to do honour to 'The last soldier of the World War and the first soldier of the third • Reich who died defending his country's honour in a time of peace. , "The demonstration I witnessed took the'form of a procession of between 20,000 and 30,000 men in uniform solemnly marching past the Unknown Soldier's grave, and making the Nazi salute on arrival there. Flags ofr.the new- regime were flying from the windows of all the'houses on the route of inarch." Poverty of Vienna. ■Mr. Ferguson said he attended a Chamlbter of Gonrmerco conference in Vienna, and he was impressed with the great popularity of Dr. Dollf'uss, the Chancellor. "People milled around him at a reception given in one of the palaces, and everybody appeared anxious t° shake hasids with him. There were no signs that I could notice of tho tension with Germany." In Vienna there were numerous' indications of poverty. A common sight was begging in the streets, and nowhere els© pa the Con-

tinent was that to be seen. ''Vienna has always been known as the beautiful city of palaces," lie continued, "but today it is a city of empty palaces. Some have been converted into hotels and others into museums —all signs of the difficulties that have attended the country since the Great War." Travel Restrictions. While in an Austrian township on the Danube Mr. Ferguson witnessed the distribution of German leaflets from an aeroplane. He also remarked the. rigid regulations in respect to travel in both Austria and Germany. Trains arriving lin Germany from Austria were carefully I searched for newspapers, no Austrian literature being allowed to enter Germany. When a visitor from another country arrived in Germany he had to show all the loose money in his possession, but was not asked to produce letters of credit or bank drafts. Mr. Ferguson said that in rural Germany and Czecho-Slovakia there was a desire to make every acre produce to its utmost capacity. In most countries he had visited the silver lining was beginning to form around the clouds of depression, and the star of hope was getting bigger and brighter.