MODERN EUROPE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 21, 23 December 1938, Page 7

MODERN EUROPE.

MILITARISM IN GERMANY. Per Press Association. AUCKLAND, Dec. 23. Returning with his wife this morning from a world tour, Mr Justice Smith said he was in Italy in April, when Herr Hitler was visiting Signor Mussolini. His main impressions were of the efficiency of the passport inspections by armed guards on all trains and at all railway stations, also of the apparent lack of public enthusiasm for the marching troops and of the courage of the Pope. He said that in Germany young soldiers were everywhere. 1,500,000 troops having been mobilised. Old men had been drafted to civilian occupations, and an abundant harvest was being gathered by women and girls, small boys, and old men. It was not surprising that uncertainty and suspense prevailed in the smaller countries of Europe. Describing the position in London in the September crisis, Mr Justice Smith added : “I feel the Englishspeaking countries have drawn even closer together in these days of peril for their institutions and ways of life.”

BRITISH OPINION.; HARDENS AGAINST HITLER. Per Press Association. AUCKLAND, Dec. 23. Public opinion in Britain was gradually hardening against Herr Hitler, stated Mi- A. J. Weaver, secretary of the Grimsby Chamber of Commerce, who arrived to-day on a round cruise. The feeling was general, he said, that each concession made wa6 followed by fresh demands, and that it was time Britain said halt Trade was an important factor, and manufacturers and industrialists thought that Britain should be able to sell in proportion as she bought. German manufacturers were undercutting British quotes by 10 per cent., regardless of profit. That 'fact underlay the recently announced British trade drive in South-East Europe in answer to the German activities there.