GERMAN LEADERS

Greymouth Evening Star, 5 December 1946, Page 6

GERMAN LEADERS

OBJECT OF PRESENCE IN BRITAIN REPLY TO CRITICISM [N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent.] LONDON, Dec. 3. A.nsevering French criticisms of his visit to Britain, Dr. Kurt Schumacher, leader of the German Social Democrat Party, said he was not here at the invitation of the British Government, but"at the invitation of the British Labour Party. He did not represent the German Government because there was no such thing. If he saw any members of the British Government, it would be as members of the Labour Party, hot in their official capacity. The Manchester Guardian, commenting upon Dr. Schumacher’s reply, says his visit is a step forward in the restoration of the broken relations between the various Labour movements in Europe and the first breach in the physical isolation of the German people from the rest of Europe. Dr. Victor Agartz, the well-known German economist, who is accompanying Dr. Schumacher, said yesterday after visiting a German prisoner of war camp at Purfleet: “Nazism and the Wehrmacht made men into machines and they looked like machines. Now they are becoming med again.” He added that it was many years since he had seen so many healthy well-nourished looking Germans.