GERMANY WITHIN

Grey River Argus, 7 September 1939, Page 8

GERMANY WITHIN

EX-CRICKETER’S IMPRESSION.S. SYDNEY, September 26. ’ “A certain amount of loyalty and affection still, exists among Germans for their erstwhile monarch—the exKaiser,” Mr W. A. Oldfield told the Royal Empire Society here. The former international cricketer said he had gleaned this during his tour of mid-Europe during the crisis last September. The average German was not even prepared to believe that, war was possible. “There is none less anxious for war than the ordinary German,” he said. The decision whether there is war or not apparently does not rest with the German public, but with the Chancellor himself. “I found Berlin in the throes of a rebuilding plan, which is giving much relief to unemployment. “There were pitiful sights of old maimed soldiers charging people admission to buildings to see relics of the last war, and they see those relics with fear and trembling. I was impressed by the absence of festivity and gaiety. Gas masks were on sale at shops, and citizens were asked to buy them in case of emergency. I saw Admiral Horthy, Hungarian Regent, feted by Hitler. Now Hitler do mands his resignation. Physical' education for youths has become a fetish or a religion in modern Germany,” he remarked. Mr Oldfield said the position was different in Prague. There he found all the elements of war hysteria, and was relieved when he left for Naples on his way home.