SPREAD OF NAZISM

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIV, Issue 80, 16 March 1934, Page 11

SPREAD OF NAZISM

African Mandated Area FORMER GERMAN COLONY A critical situation has arisen in South-west Africa and when next the Assembly meets in April fateful decisions will have to be made, says a Capetown correspondent. South-west Africa was formerly a German colony. Since the war it has been a Mandated Territory of the Union of South Africa. A considerable proportion of the population is German. Following on the spread of Nazism in the Protectorate a measure described as the Criminal Law Amendment Ordinance was passed by a South African majority at the last session of the local Parliament. Now, six months later, it has been put into force, and the effects are likely to be far-reaching. For one thing, it will mean the control, if not the total suppression, of the Nazi movement in South-west Africa —a movement which has grown considerably during recent months, to the extent of Germans proposing dual nationality in the Assembly, first as Germans and then as British subjects. The Act empowers the Administrator and the Executive Committee to suppress “any organisation, foreign or otherwise, which in their opinion is detrimental to the interests of the country.” Further, it prohibits the wearing of any badges, uniforms and colours without the express permission of the Administrator. It empowers the police to execute a search warrant on auy premises suspected of being used for detrimental propaganda or similar purposes, and makes the using of threats against persons or property a criminal offence. There is provision for deportation under the Act, but that is provided for under another law. The measure carries heavy penalties for its contravention, and it will be used to stop drilling demonstrations in Nazi uniform and the use of threats to opponents of the Nazi system. At the next session of the Southwest Assembly there is every possibility that a motion will be introduced providing, that South-west Africa should become a province of the Union of South Africa. South African opinion in the territory is said to be unanimous on the point. It has. been obvious for some time that South-west Africa cannot carry on under the present arrangement. The burden of debt is so great that the country cannot meet its interest charges and the uncertainty that exists about the ultimate destiny of the Protectorate is retarding the country’s progress. As . a protest against the Criminal Law Amendment Ordinance the German section of the population has adopted a policy of passive resistance, and their representatives on the Executive Council, Advisory Council and in the Assembly, have decided not to take part in the deliberations of these bodies. There the position rests at the moment. The Administrator, Dr. D. G. Conradie, is personally disinclined to apnly the new measure too drastically if only, he sdys, the members of the Nazi organisation “behave themselves,”