DREAM OF CONQUEST.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVI, Issue 107, 6 April 1926, Page 7

DREAM OF CONQUEST.

GERMAN MAGNATES’ PLAN

SCHEME THAT FAILED

REMARKABLE REVELATION S

LONDON, April 5. The death of tiie German industrial magnate, August Thyssen, at the age of od, recalls an amazing German plan lor conquering Europe and England and exploiting all tho “wasted assets” of the British Empire. Tins project of universal assimilation, devised at a meeting of magnates in, Berlin at the beginning of the century, was originally planned for 1912, says the Baiiy Telegraph, and was to be based on almost incredible indemnities, enabling German manufactureres to be exempt from taxation for years to come. The syndicate, with a capital of £20,0UU,000, was to handle Canada, while the inexhaustible wealth of India, was to be poured into Germany. ihyssen s reward was to be 30,000 acres of the best land in Australia. Unluckily for the plotters, as the world knows, instead of reaping profits, the magnates of tho Fatherland were called on in 1915 to pay up £200,000,000 towards the expenses of the war. Against the expectant profits from indemnities, Thyssen’s share was to be £200,000 as a first instalment. He alone refused and denounced the levy as blackmail. Ho was warned that it he broke front the compact there would be no more war contracts, or money, or payment of bills already overdue, but the threats did not deter, him. The majority might pay as they liked, and tho world might scoff at the mortification of the greedy millionaire who sold his self-respect for a bargain parcel of land in the far Antipodes. In 1918 ho went to Switzerland and published a remarkable pamphlet, , in which he told tho whole story, accusing the ex-Kaiser of bamboozling his subjects and their employers into a war which would mean nothing but national bankruptcy7-—A. and N.Z. cable.