Evening Post WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 29, 1934. THE SAAR PROBLEM

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 51, 29 August 1934, Page 8

Evening Post WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 29, 1934. THE SAAR PROBLEM

At tire beginning of die month the German Minister of Enlightenment and Propaganda was reported to have planned "a whirlwind fifteenday campaign, including 200,000 loud-speakers,' through which Nazi speeches will he daily broadcast" for the purpose of getting a 100 per cent, vote in favour of the 100 per cent, tyranny that Herr Hitler had seized on Hindenburg's death.- Outside of Germany the spontaneous enthusiasm that the electors were asked to display would have been more impressive if the apparatus by which it was being worked had been less conspicuous, but it was natural to credit that superb showman and wirepuller, Dr.: Goebbels, with a better knowledge of the business than any outsider. A very large part of the public opinion of his countrymen during the last eighteen months had been of his own .*. manufacture. Through his monopoly of the machinery- of Enlightenment arid Propaganda he had persuaded them that slavery was good for them. They had danced and hugged their chains, and the tighter the bondage became, the better they seemed to like it. Dr. Goebbels was convinced that, with the help of his whirlwind fifteen-day campaign and his 200,000 loudspeakers, the same logic would carry them still further. He expressed himself confident that the* result of the plebiscite would be "100 per cent. pro-Hitler," and the shortage of 10 per cent, was as serious a blow for him as it was for his chief.

After this reverse the Nazi leaders may be congratulated-, on having promptly undertaken something easier and made a success of it. The Saar plebiscite campaign was launched on Sunday in a spectacular manner which probably no other country could emulate and which certainly showed Dr. Goebbels's department at its best. By special, trains and cars some 500,000 Nazis were assembled at Ehrenbreitstein, which is on the Rhine opposite Coblenz, and of course they gave Herr Hitler and Dr. Goebbels a tumultuous welcome on their arrival to open the campaign. Our report of the speeches is confined to a single sentence which may well be all that was worth recording.

Herr Hitler, adopting a pacificatory tono throughout a half-hour's speech, promised tho- Saar Germans that the Fatherland would receive them back as homo-comers and forget the past.

This has a conciliatory and generous sound about it, but it is not quite so good as it sounds; Many of those to whom the promise was addressed will not find it so easy to forget the recent.past as Herr Hitler and his followers do. Two years ago the Germans in the Saar were expected to^ carry the plebiscite for reunion with Germany by a vote of not less than nine to one, but since then the violence and the tyranny and the poverty in the homeland has set them thinking. . Even under the jurisdiction of the League of Nations the formation of a "German Front" in the Saar has given its inhabitants a closer acquaintance with Nazi politics and Nazi violence than they care for, and has made them less eager for the removal of the frontier than they were.

As these doubtful voters whom the Nazis themselves have alarmed, and to some extent alienated, may be strong enough to turn the balance at the poll Herr Hitler was wise to use only the soft pedal at Ehrenbreitstein. The peaceful note was calculated to influence his countrymen on both sides of the frontier in the right direction, but it is not so clear that the pageantry or the stage-dressing or whatever it should be called would be of any service on either side. One message was brought from Ruegen Island by swimmers across the sound. Another came from the Sugspitze Mountain, having been "passed from hand to hand by expert mountaineers." It was of course very nice, but what did it mean? Time was when the sea and the mountains were supposed to represent liberty.

Two Voices are there, one is of the sea, One of the Mountains, ea«h a mighty voice: In both from age to age thou didst rejoice; They were thy chosen music, Liberty!

But there are no two voices in Germany. For her the mountains and the sea, like everything else that she has, speak with but a single voice—the voice of a tyranl. Ruegen Island and the Sugspitze joined in sending the tyrant's message to the people in the Saar, an invitation to come in and share with them ihn

blessings of his rule. Other messages of "loyalty to the Saar," which means exactly the same thing, were brought from all parts of Germany by 140,000 relay runners, and at the close of the proceedings 10,000 carrier pigeons were released to convey the news. The figures are impressive, but by pressing.a button Dr. Goebbels could, of course, have achieved the same results with far greater speed and efficiency.

Within the Saar basin ihe composite character of the opposition to union with Germany was illustrated by the anti-Nazi meeting of 70.000 held at Salzbach. A Roman Catholic priest shared the platform with Socialists and Communists. There is nothing new in this combination, for before Herr Hitler's call to office the Centre (or Catholic), the Communist, and the Democratic Parties dominated the politics of the Saar. But after the compulsory .dissolution of the Centre Party in Germany the Centre Party in the Saar voluntarily followed suit, and most of its members joined the Nazi "German Front." Since then, however, there have been many resignations, and the ultimate destination of the majority appears to be uncertain.

The priest who spoke at the Salzbach meeting is reported to have said that "70 per cent, of the Saarlanders were Catholics, and Catholicism could never be reconciled with Hitlerism." On the first point he follows the usual estimate, but the second appears to be still on' the knees of the Pope,- and Herr Hitler has been seriously embarrassed by the uncertainty. How thoroughly Catholics and Protestants have been brought together by their common danger in the Saar is proved by the fact that Catholic priests took part in the Protestant services on Sunday, and vice versa. Herr Hitler claims to have made "a clear cnt between politics and religion which the State will protect if it is not exploited politically." But from . the standpoint of the Vatican he has himself been exploiting religion politically and his "Aryan" Christianity is sheer paganism.