"TAKING OFF THE LID."

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 300, 20 December 1938, Page 10

"TAKING OFF THE LID."

A plain, blunt man is Mr. Henry L. lekes, United State* Secretary for the Interior. He makes no mental reservations when he decides that it is time to " tell off " anybody who has incurred his deep displeasure, and so, when he opened up his mind about the German regime, he had something to say. The Hon. R. Seiuple incurred the displeasure of somebody in the Reich a little while ago by his references to the Fuehrer, but what he had to say was in the best tea party tradition compared with Mr. Ickes' eruption, and perhaps we may hear before long thatPresident Roosevelt has been asked to keep the bad boy of the family in order for the future. The German newspapers and the propagandist leaders have a very frank way with them when they take the literary whip to the leaders o£ other nalions, but they do not reli>h reprisals, and they have seldom been called upon to feel the lash wielded to such purpose as by the present critic. To refer to their decorations as " shabby baubles from a brutal dictator," to his drift back " to a day when man was unlettered, benighted and bestial," and to say that " the dictator was forced to manufacture clangers 1,1 ord ® r to strengthen his hold on the people," is very much more pungent comment than Herr Hitler usually hears. But it is an indication of the exasperation felt in high places at Germany's policy, ami a criticism which cannot be answered by suggesting Jewish affinities of blood or affection. Mr. Ickes has spoken his mind, and in doing so has given heart of grace to Mr. Semple.