DANES AND GERMANS

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 36, 11 August 1933, Page 7

DANES AND GERMANS

THE SCHLESWIG.-ISSUE

MAT BE REOPENED

' The first reception of the Nazr revolution by the Danish public was not, on the whole, unfriendly. The Danes have no love for the ideals which Nazism stands for, but since the war sympathy with Germany had been growing; it was widely held that she was not being given a fair deal, And the revival of Prussianism was regarded as a not unnatural reaction against tho indignity of her position, which would vanish again if that position wero improved. Also, it was felt, there was something to be said for any system that promised to prevent civil war and restore order, says , the Danish correspondent of tho "Manchester Guardian." ■ , ' ■ Of the four leading Copenhagen dailies, the Socialist "Soeialdemokraten" and the Eadical "Politiken" were naturally critical from the start; of the two :Conservative papers, the "Berlingske Tidende" was non-com-mittal^ while the Berlin correspondent of the "Dagens Nyheder" reported the. various popular spectacles staged by the new Government with a good deal of gusto. The anti-Jew campaign did much to alienate whatever sympathy there may have been to begin with. There is no anti-Semitism in this country, and the idea of a Germanic race embodying all the noblest • human virtues is regarded by most'D,anes as romantic nonsense. THE THKEAT. On the top of this came the news of the proceedings of the Brown Shirts in German Schleswig, which is a Nazi stronghold. Shortly after the change of Government meetings were held under the auspices of two of the most prominent local Nazi leaders, Herr Peperkorn and Herr Siewortz, who openly proclaimed the roanuexatjon of North Schleswig to be their first aim. Their programme is the immediate Nazifleation of the German minority in Danish Schleswig, followed by a demand for the cession of that province. Speakers at their meetings are even reported—though with how much accuracy it is difficult to ascertain— to have suggested that the ' most judicious procedure might be a sort of Jameson Raid across the frontier by an army of Brown Shirts. These utterances are perhaps not .to be taken too seriously. Their authors are local men, and so far no member of the inner'circle'of Nazi leaders has given them any direct backing. On the contrary, it has been given out in tho official Nazi "Press that the , new Government will endeavour to promote friendly relations, with all the Scandinavian. States, and that it does not regard the Schleswig ' question as of immediate interest. ■Nevertheless Danish opinion has been somewhat alarmed. If there is one thing on which all Danes agree* it is their belief in the fairness of the Schleswig settlement of 1920. Though historically the whole of Schleswig is Danish territory, the Danish. Government, with practically .the whole of the public behind it, refused to entertain the idea of taking back any other part than that in which the plebiscite showed a Danish majority, thus excluding large districts which had been definitely Danish when they were annexed by Prussia in 1864 and where there was still a considerable Danish minority. , OEKMAN MINORITY. In the territory which thus' voted itself back to Denmark there was a German minority, which was roughly equal to the Danish minority south of the new frontier and which chiefly consisted of people who had immigrated during the fifty years of German rule. This minority constituted 25 per cent, of the population at tho time of the plebiscite. It was mostly urban and so-evenly distributed that only in 7 of the 119 parishes of North Schleswig did the Germans outvote the Danes. Since then the German element has decreased, and at the last General Election (1932) only 13.2 per cent of the votes were cast for German candidates. The Danes pride themselves on their liberal treatment of the German minority; it is acknowledged evpn by Herr Peperkorn, who has recently denounced it as a particularly insidious form of anti-German propaganda. Tho Danish Press has been cautious in its comments, but there can be little doubt that the mere fact that an attempt, however irresponsible, has been made to reopen the Schleswig question, which everybody had supposed to be definitely, ancj fairly settled, is making the public doubt whether one can expect reason from the Nazis at .all. The only step which the Government lisa taken is to forbid the use of political Mu£orms in public places.