GERMANY’S TRUE MIND.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 24 June 1927, Page 8

GERMANY’S TRUE MIND.

THE UNKNOWN QUANTITY. “WHAT AVE HAVE LOST.” “There is a considerable body of thought in Germany to-day which firmly believes that the more objectionable features of the Treaty of Versailles can be repealed by force,” declared Air. W. A. Holman, ex-Premier of New South Wales, in an address before the members of the Sydney Legacy Club a few days ago. Mr. Holman said that the unknown quantity' that was disturbing the mind of the world to-da.v was not Russia, as one might suppose, but Germany. Russia was a known quantity; her attitude and outlook were well defined. Prussia dominated Germany, and to appreciate the true position to-day one had to read, and piece together fragments of illuminating information gathered from the speecehs of German Ministers in the Reichstag and by Prussian Ministers in the Prussian Diet.

In substance what they said, was: “True, we joined the League of Nations, but that is only the first step toward regaining everything that we lost during the war. We are getting back little by little to where we can bring pressure to bear on the League of Nations to have returned what we have lost.” “One can come to only one conclusion.” said Air. Holman emphatically. “It is this: The dominating forces in Germany to-day are not necessarily peaceful, and the majority of the people are still in the warlike frame of mind that they were in before 1914. 1 am convinced that the conventional attitude of saying, ‘The war is over, wo have only to shake hands and forget and forgive, will lead us into the false paradise that we were in. before the war, and no man was more immersed in that false paradise than I myself. There are people, for reasons of their own, some honest, some deliberately dishonest, who are leading us into a false paradise of unreal security.” There were, added Air. Holman, those who said to-day that Germany was their natural ally, and that it was deplorable that they' should ever have quarrelled. Expressions, of sentiments of this l kind were common in the J/enguo of Nations’ Union—-a body that wanted to see a new treaty made with Germany. The Germans l were carrying out a most vigorous propaganda, campaign throughout Europe which had repercussions in Australia.