N.P.D. Threat To Kiesinger

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31584, 23 January 1968, Page 11

N.P.D. Threat To Kiesinger

(N.Z. P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) BONN, Jan. 22. The radical Rightwing National Democratic Party (N.P.D.) has ordered its 30,000 members to go underground and form “social clubs” if the party is outlawed in West Germany, according to reliable sources in Bonn. A confidential circular instructs local leaders to prepare to convert branches into athletic clubs, chess clubs, stamp collector associations and similar organisations.

The West-German Chancellor (Mr Kurt Kiesinger) and the Minister of the Interior (Mr Paul Luecke) have made no secret of their intention to seek a ban if and when they have enough evidence that the N.P.D. violates the constitution.

The party was founded 2| years ago as a rallying point for national conservatives, radical right-wingers, and “unreconstructed” Nazis. The N.P.D. chairman (Mr Adolf von Thadden) has so far succeeded in avoiding Government suppression and has kept. his more radical members in line by promising to shift even further to the Right once the party has captured seats in the Bundestag, or Lower House of Parliament.

The N.P.D. has picked up between 6 and 8 per cent of the popular vote in six of the 11 States, and its deputies sit in the Legislatures. Most experts predict that the party will do about as well in the 1969 Federal elections, and win about 40 of the 500 seats in the Bundestag. The last test before the Federal election comes on April 28, in the State election in Baden-Wuerttemberg, and the N.P.D. is concentrating all its available strength there, bringing in volunteer workers from all other States. At the same time, Mr Thadden has ordered all branches of the party to make secret preparations to go underground it the Federal Government does succeed in obtaining a court order to ban it The recently - distributed circulars instruct that, in the event of a ban, all communication is to be by messengers

who will transmit communications orally. Membership lists are to be combed to eliminate potential traitors, and party files are to be hidden in places known only to the leaders. If there is time, party banking accounts are to be closed and the funds transferred to private accounts, or hidden. The Federal Government has been reluctant so far to ask the Constitutional Court to outlaw the N.P.D. for fear the court would have to turn down the request for lack of evidence. In that case, the N.P.D. would be given a clean bill of health. Mr Thadden is aware of the Government’s problem, and a week ago, after Mr Heinrich Wehner, the Social Democrat

who is Minister for All-Ger-man Affairs, declared the N.P.D. to be “anti-democratic,” Mr Thadden wrote an open letter to Mr Kiesinger, demanding the Government to bring a suit against his party. “Such a trial,” Mr Thadden said, "would reveal the baselessness of the accusations made against us.” The Government has ignored the letter, but its search for evidence against Mr Thadden’s party has been spurred by a new public opinion survey, which shows that between 7 and 10 per cent of the miners in the Ruhr might be willing to vote for the N.P.D. if the Government does not do more to protect highcost German coal against cheaper imports.