TERRORISM IN GERMANY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 229, 27 August 1932, Page 6

TERRORISM IN GERMANY.

Defying the decree of the German Government imposing the death penalty for terrorist crimes, five Nazis brutally killed a Communist at Beutken. Entering his home, they dragged their victim from his bed and battered him to death. It was another dramatic incident in the vendetta declared by the Hitlerite forces against the Communists. Being a member of this political party was the only offence the murdered man apparently had committed in the eyes of his deadly enemies, but to them it was sufficient to encompass his death. Now the five Nazis, a Court has decided, shall forfeit their lives for their crime. The outcome is a storm of resentment and protest by the Fascist organisation against the Court's verdict. Herr Hitler, it is reported, is impressing upon the Chancellor the necessity for pardoning the five men; the majority of the newspapers hope for commutation of the sentence, while the powerful organ Germania insists that the “misled masses must be shown that the State and the law are above political parties.” On the other hand, the Democratic Press views the verdict as a sufficient warning, and urges the commutation of the sentences. The Government is plainly on the horns of a dilemma. The Nazi leader has made the liberty of the five men a question of his force’s honour. Another of the Party has threatened civil war if the verdict is executed. But the test is whether the forces of law and order, or of terrorism, are to triumph. If the Government can find a way satisfactory to all parties out of its dilemma, it may save its face, but whether it decides that the law shall take its course, or that the men shall be given a term of imprisonment instead of the death penalty, each path is fraught with grave peril both to itself and the country. For it is most likely, in the second event that the decrees which were promulgated to prevent terrorism will become a dead letter, and the Nazis will wage war against the Communists. In the first event, there is the expressed determination of the Nazis to avenge their comrades. The removal of the ban against wearing Nazi uniform has been followed with direful consequences, and and in this the President erred. With thousands of followers armed and in uniform, Herr Hitler can maintain his stubborn indifference to the country’s welfare by remaining aloof from participation in the Government. Even now it is proposed to continue governing by decree, as the Reichstag is to be summarily dismissed when it assembles next week. Herr Hitler and his followers have sown the wind; it was inevitable that some at least of them would reap the whirlwind.