GERMAN WARMONGERS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 5 October 1927, Page 10

GERMAN WARMONGERS.

TRY A NEW SCARE

THE -‘COMING” STRUGGLE WITH POLAND. German militarists are again trving to create a war scare in France. The Paris newspaper “Le Temps has criven great prominence to a long and amazing article from the German military weekly. “Die Menschheit.’ The ‘article, ‘it says, “outlines the programme of the most influential military circles in Germany with regard to the new policy of the Keiclisvvehr (the National Army) and the Stalilhelm t(a great secret militarist society), by which it is hoped to establish the military power of GeiV many.” First of all the article considers the condition of the various European armies, chiefly the French and Polish.

“The French Army,” it says, “is insufficiently instructed. At present itis superior to the German; but the German Army, constituted as it will he in a few years, will be able to repulse victoriously a,trench attack. “The weak point in the French army is that its chiefs are obliged to take its democratic, socialist and pacifist instincts into account. “The German army is not exposed to this danger, being Nationalist and military. “The Polish Army is doubtless that with which we shall first have to measure ourselves. AH the German military chiefs believe this.” REBUILDING GERMAN ARMY.

The article then goes on to describe the new plan for rebuilding the German army, a plan which, it says, “has been studied in all its details by the Ministry of Defence.” Briefly, the plan is designed ho “render impossible all control by the League of Nations,” and ‘‘in order to conform in appearances at least to the terms of the Treaties, which only provide for an army of 116,(X)0 men.” Rut, by cunning and secret- arrangements, that army in a few years, will really consist of 460000 men, and “it will be the best instructed army in Europe.” Then the annual contingent of Reichswehr recruits will be increased from 10,000 to 40,000 in addition to 10,000 or 15,000 picked men, who will be enrolled on the secret understanding that they will be freed at the end of one year “on some pretext or other.”

To-day all this “must be very circumspect,”- declares the article. “An army of 350,000 men on a war footing, together with 100,000 to 150,000 ex-soldiers of the war 1914-1918, will amply suffice for the coming war with Poland,” the article boasts; and then it goes on to deal with the advantages of the Stahrhelm as an additional recruiting agency, the training of officers, and the formation of resen’e and staffs. All these ideas, we are frankly informed. have been adopted since General Heye took command of the armv.