COUNT VON LUCKNER.

Evening Star, Issue 22893, 26 February 1938, Page 19

COUNT VON LUCKNER.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —The insidious manner in which Fascist propaganda permeates the avenues through which ideas are administered to a confiding public receives another example in the gushing publicity given to von Luckner’s visit to his former prison at Motuhihi. The political significance of the visit is ignored, and the reason and circumstances of his imprisonment in New Zealand politely forgotten. Yet Count von Luekner comes here as the unofficial representative of a regime far more dangerous and destructive to human wellbeing than that of the Emperor Wilhelm, and we have not forgotten the odium that was attached to German militarism in 1914. Although he has denied that he has come 16,000 miles to “ spread propaganda on behalf of Germany,” he stated in Hitler’s official newspaper, April 4, 1937 : “ I am going as Hitler’s emissary to the youth of the world to win them for better understanding of a new Germany. I will tell them of my exploits during the war, and the salvation of the Fatherland. None but criminals have been deprived of their liberty in Germany in order that decent Germans may live.” What is this new Germany of which von Luekner is the apostle? It is the land of Fascist brutality in its lowest degree. Fascism is the negation of democracy, therefore it is the very worst and cruellest form of class rule that the world has ever known. During the Great War the force of circumstances made von Luckner a raider and destroyer of merchant ships that were conveying essential supplies to the Mother Country. A very polished gentleman pirate, he was “ the very mildest-mannered man that ever scuttled ship or cut a throat.” The manner in which Fascist propaganda and coercion penetrated Spain long- before and in preparation for the rebellion has been published to the world. Let us be vigilant to guard our democratic liberties in New Zealand and not give countenance to an avowed enemy of democracy, however good a fellow he may be on the surface.—l am, etc., A. B. Powell. February 25.