HITLER’S GERMANY

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 256, 25 July 1936, Page 8

HITLER’S GERMANY

A Pleasant Land and Its Charming People BUT HEADING STRAIGHT FOR WAR The author of this article is a. master of modern languages at Eton College, England. A. frequent visitor to Germany, he has lately spent several months in continuous residence there. (By C. D’O. Gowan.) “And I am proud to be a German, under a leader who knows so well how to make us respected abroad and happy at home.” This is a direct quotation from a letter I received in April, in answer to one of mine suggesting that Hitler bad been rash to risk war by reoccupying the Rhineland. It expresses the feelings of at least 45,000,000 of the 60,000,000 Germans over whom Hitler rules. They are not merely contented, but actually proud of their position. And with reason. Four years ago there were 6,000,000 unemployed in Germany. By March this year the official figure was down to slightly over 1,000,000. The armaments industry is working overtime, and its state of business keeps all other industry going. Wages are not very high, but so much is done for the families of the workers—Hitler Youth to occupv and amuse their sons, League of German Girls for their daughters, various party branches and activities for themselves and their wives—that they feel much better off than they used to when wages were higher. Also there are no longer the great contrasts between wealth and poverty to irritate them. The old aristocracy are no longer rich: the industrial magnates have their incomes cut down by the forced “loan” to the State of all profits from business over 6 per cent, (or in a very few cases S per cent.). On the other hand the workers are given special facilities for cheap travel and cheap amusements (theatres, concerts, etc.), through the “Kraft durch Freude” (strength from pleasure) movement; to such an extent that all the old upper classes complain of what a “common lot of people” arc to be met everywhere. Encouraging Good Workmanship. Besides the increased employment, there is much greater encouragement given to good workmanship now than before. The Reichsweltkampf is an annual competition in Berlin for the best craftsmen of all industries, and the winners receive facilities for special training and are marked out as future leaders, of the party. It must not be forgotten that the full name of Hitler’s party is the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, and it is laid down in their handbooks that “Work must rule over wealth,” and that “acquisitive capital” must be rooted out, though “productive capital” may be allowed to remain. They are happy, at home, then: and of course they are not allowed to know that they are not respected abroad. What they hear Is this (from a speech by Gauleiter Wagner, in command of the Munich district), “The whole world stands amazed at what Adolph Hitler has accomplished. In three years he has raised Germany from the dust, and the world stands in astonishment and wonder.” In three years they have got back the Saar; they have got back their army; they have got back the Rhineland. What can they not get?—sixty million of them, the strongest and best organised nation in Europe west of Russia. Next they will want their colonies back—the walls were decorated with their names in the German theatre on “safari” night at the Munich Carnival. Then Austria—Danzig—bits of Poland—CzechoslovakiaBelgium—all of which contain more or less large German-speaking areas. So far they have got everything peaceably. But if they are opposed, will they not be tempted to make use of theip new army? I cannot over-emphasise the impression I got this winter of profound peacefulness in Germany. The Germans, after all, experienced far more of the horrors of the war than anyone else, and I never heard a soul mention war with anything but loathing. lam convinced that Hitler wants peace. He is inspired by a passionate, fanatical love of his country, and he cannot want to risk undoing the good he has done so far by a war. He has stated over and over again that as an ex-soldier be hates war, that "'ar brings no gain to anybody, but loss to everybody. I am sure ho means it. But so long as lie preaches bis fanatical nationalism, he is beading straight, against his will, for war. Nothing but war can win him the parts of Europe which he says must be German. And nothing but war, as Mussolini has found, can cover up the failure of Fascism to bring about economic recovery.

Prosperity Dependent on Rearmament.

The whole of Germany’s present precarious prosperity is dependent on the rearmament. The armament industry alone is working full time to supply something tbe country really wants, and the other industries are only being kept going by the needs of the arms trade. When, as must shortly happen the rearmament is complete and workin the industry slows down, all other trades will slow down with it. And Germany has no reserves. Already she is using a system of barter to cope with the imports sbe needs—for instance, Standard Oil of New Jersey announce that they have bad to accept 49,000,000 mouth-organs in payment for a shipment of petrol 1 It cannot last, and unless Germany succeeds in finding some other basis for her industry than the prosperity of the arms trade, she must undergo another economic crisis. She cannot expect the other nations, which dislike her brutal methods and fear her huge army, to help her tide it over. And then National Socialism must either admit failure—a thing which no Fascist Government lias ever been known to do—or distract the people’s attention by plunging into war.

A sad thought, for it is such a pleasant land and they are such charming people. But as long as they tear up treaties they must be regarded with distrust; and as long as they are such rabid nationalists, they will continue to consider all things justifiable in the national interest, and will continue to be potential or actual treaty-breakers.