SPECTRES OF WAR.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 255, 27 September 1932, Page 8

SPECTRES OF WAR.

GAS MASKS SOLD WITH FELT HATS IN GERMANY. SIGNS OF THE IRON HEEL. In the whole extent of Europe, the most astonishing political event—and to those who have tho cause of peace at heart, the most disquieting event—is the renaissance of the militarist Junker rulers in Germany. That the moderate Republican leaders who have had charge of the German foreign policy since tne war were the real leaders of the German people, many good judges, especially in France, have genuinely doubted. The great rally of the German “Steel Helmets,” in the presence of the exCrown Prince and war-time generals has its counter part in the streets of Berlin, where a hatter’s shop displays gas masks priced “to suit all sizes.” Abroad, as in France, the recent Governmental changes in Germany have bred a fear that the old German military, caste is preparing to throw olf the shackles of the Peace Treaty of Versailles. At home, the Republicans, from the more sober-minded Democrats down to the most ardent “Reds,” fear that the old ruling caste is paving the way to the complete overthrow of the Republican Constitution and defiance of the elected Reichstag by the force of arms. To the Republicans, the rush of events in the last month, from the arbitrary nomination of the notorious von Papen as Chancellor by President von Hindenburg, down to the snub which von Hindenburgli administered to the new Reichstag’s Speaker—when he told liim to stay where he was, in Berlin —have all portended the overthrow of democratic institutions.

Day by day, the Monarchists and the old ruling class are emboldened to fresh self-assertions. The assembly of tho Steel Helmets, on whose support von Papen can rely if the Reichstag dares to challenge his authority, amounted to an open acknowledgment by the arbitrary rulers of the Reich and of Prussia, of the Steel Helmets’ place in the new scheme of Government.