CHANGED GERMANY

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 100, 2 May 1929, Page 18

CHANGED GERMANY

A VISIT TO BERLIN

DUKE AND DUCHESS

(From "Tho Post's' Representative.)

LONDON, 19th March

On their way to attend the wedding of the Crown Priuce of Norway, the Duke and Duchess of York spent a day in Berlin. They were met at the station by Sir Horace Humbold, the British Ambassador, and drove straight to the embassy in the Wilhelmstrasso.

It is the first time the Duke ;md Duchess have ever visited the Ormau capital, and it is the first time that any members of the British Royal Family have visited Berlin since the war. They showed a keen interest in everythhi" they Saw (writes the correspondent of the "Daily Express"). They made the most of their day in Berlin. The mormiv was spent in a walk through the Unrer den Linden on their way to the trreat castle of the ex-Kaiser, which lin* 'now been converted into a Kepublican museum. They stopped for an instant »to look into the public library and the quadrangle of the university The castle itself greatly interested them, and their piide pointed out the marks of machine-gun fire still visible on the iacade and also the famous balcony on the first story, which was blown to pieces by the artillery fire of the Socialist troops who were trying to eject the Spartacists at Christmas, 1918. The afternoon was spent at Potsdam exploring the wonders of Sans vSouci. Fortunately, there was bright sunshine, and the Duchess was charmed with the quiet dignity and beauty of this dream palace of I'redenck the Great. -\ To official cognisance was taken of the visit by the German Government this being 111 accordance with the Dukr and Duchess s desire for privacy and the observance of strict incognito durin« their passage across Germany. The Duke left his card on President yon Hindenbur" at the Presidential Palace, says Reutei, and the President immediately returned the courtesy at the embassy. A HAPPY IDEA. "It was a happy idea which led the Duke and Duchess of York to pay an miolhcial visit to Berlin," says the "Daily Chronicle, in a leading article "No memlier ot our Royal Family had preceded them there since the war; nor while iv.-n- memories still rankled would such .1 visit have been in place. But British opinion towards Germany—and in n ]ar»e measure German opinion towards Great Britain-has reached the stage of wishing oygoues to be bygones; and it should be as natural for a British Prince to visit he chiet city of the German Republic as to call in at Pans or New York . ' Of course, there are still Monarchists n Germany and so long as unemployed members of the old Prussian officer-class survive in large numbers (and often in hard circumstances), there will continue to Ijc. But their disappearance seems only a matter of time. Xo living crre t turns their mill-wheel; all the younp moveothe ■ w,? eniTi' y ■" flowin« atronel>- the otliei way. .lh o interests of a peaceful modern society-industry, traders,"," athletics, art, science, literature-are now everywhere on top-; and the military idea Inch down to lUI4 dominated Berlin soh^ y, /' 'lc'g,roc n]most »'™»teivable. Uas^ passeil nearly out of sight •Ihe eonse.jue.ice is that the British and German minds, which have ah ays had much m common, are now almolt "iiuTies kn°,f, lff \ '^eloping natZ .uiUHtieh. Hoheiizollcrnism would have been incompatible with such a tendency our own democratic Monarchy i.s not ,! the least. We believe closer Angio-Ger-man friendship (whicn is not in the tet oppotod to Anglo-French or Anlo-•Ameri- Kcan to be vital for the progress of civil--IS.UIOII and lor peace in Europe; and we welcome^ any episode which points to