PREPAREDNESS FOR WAR

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21812, 18 June 1936, Page 7

PREPAREDNESS FOR WAR

VISITOR’S IMPRESSIONS OF GERMANY EUKOPEAU SITUATION SEEN AS “GUNPOWDER PLOT” (FBNSS ASSOCIATION TBEIGEAIC.) AUCKLAND, June 17. After visiting France, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Hungary, and other countries, Mr Brian Dunninghaxn, of Auckland, who returned by the Wanganella to-day, describes European relations at the moment as being “a gunpowder plot needing only the spark to set it off.” • In the United States, Mr Dunningham made the acquaintance of the Dean of Canterbury, and accompanied him as secretary through Canada, subsequently visiting Europe with influential introductions. Mr Dunningham said that Germany was the focal point, as there war was held to be the only solution of the present financial troubles. Germany, in a military sense, was by far the best prepared country in Europe. The occupation of the Rhine was only a minor act in a much bigger play. His information, from influential sources, supported the belief that what Germany wanted was a piece of Russia. Her eyes were on the southern oil fields and the grain lands of the Ukraine. Mr Dunningham saw many evidences of military preparedness. ANOTHER VIEW TAKEN “GERMANY WANTS PEACE” ITHE PRESS Special Service.] WELLINGTON, June 17. “Germany does not appear to me to want trouble,” Mr L. S. Stohr, who has just returned from a five-months’ tour in which he visited England. France, Germany, Switzerland, and the United States, said in an interview.

Mr Stohr said that he found Germany busy, with considerable activity ’a tne factories, and there seemed to be a general atmosphere conveying the impression that the population was more anxious to work than to fight. The largest silk mill in Europe was comparatively close to the French border, and a German had asked him if it would have been built there if the Germans wanted war or anticipated war. The French he found bitterly prejudiced against the Germans, even those who had lived for years in England, where it might have been expected that their antipathy would have been toned down as a result of the increasingly friendly feeling toward the Germans evident in England. A vast proportion of the English feeling seemed now to be proGerman. The general impression seemed to be that Herr Adolf Hitler was sincere in his regard for peace, and there was at least a readiness to give him a chance to prove his sincerity. Friendly Towards Britain The German feeling toward England was also markedly friendly. Mr Stohr was in Germany at the time of the reoccupation of the Rhineland, and went to a German beer garden with a German host, who let it be known that he was entertaining two Englishmen. The band immediately played “God Save the King,” and followed this with the only other British tune the band leader knew, “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary.” The Germans took the occupation of the Rhineland calmly, but the French were hysterical about it. All military leave was stopped, and it seemed to the casual observer that the French would have been quite ready to "have a go” at the Germans. German textile factories were working three shifts a day to fill orders for both internal and external trade, but French industry was at present practically confined to internal trade. German external trade, however, was to some extent impeded by the policy of not allowing imports of greater volume than the exports.